Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Grenada Chocolate

December 15th, 2014
Last time we were in Grenada we did an island tour hitting the highlights and giving us a good overview.  One special stop of interest was The Grenada Chocolate Factory.  While Grenada is called The Spice Isle, it could also be called the cocoa isle as "cocoa trees grow in their natural state, optimal  amidst the fruit and spice bearing trees in the rich volcanic soil of the tropical forest" per Jouvay Chocolate.

We returned to Grenada last week and local chocolate was immediately placed on our shopping list.  I purchased two bars of Jouvay Chocolate from Diamond Cocoa Estates, cocoa content 70%, notes dark and smooth.  Our first taste sampling was last night after dinner.  Oh my.  This chocolate is excellent.  Package ingredients:  ground cocoa beans, cane sugar, may contain vanilla beans.  That is it.  Sweet and simple.  FYI - The name Jouvy is from j'ouvert (jour ouvert), is the opening day celebration of Carnival.  If you come to Grenada, don't make the same mistake we just did.....buy more than 2 bars of chocolate.  Hell, give away your travel clothes before you leave and fill your suitcase with Grenada chocolate bars, nutmeg and hot sauce!  

One other thing I would like to share from the Jouvay package.   "Jouvay Chocolate is a partnership between Grenada's cocoa farmers and LA Burdick Grenada.  As majority owners of Jouvay, Grenada's cocoa growers are also manufacturers, doing the added value processing which creates higher income and leads to greater financial security."  This was the case with The Grenada Chocolate Factory as well.  I also read recently about The Grenada Goat Dairy Project which "Seeks to produce nutritious goat dairy products in harmony with the evironment as a working model from which to train and empower Grenadian farmers."  We are starting to see and learn more about these types of co-ownership, coop-ops, training and sustainability programs.  Good stuff.  I have to constantly remind myself of just how new most of the Caribbean islands are in terms of self government.

Anyway....yum!  


No comments:

Post a Comment