WEEK 5/DAY 3 – CHOCOLATE, ANYONE? by Keairra Smith and Carol-Faye Bynoe-George

Interns from the Ministry of Agriculture visited the chocolate factory located in Bay Gardens owned by Mr. Peter Reitz. Mr. Ebby Kelsick and Sandy Branker (tour guides) are the chocolate factory operators and they’ve been involved in making chocolate for the last two (2) years. The factory situated in a tropical garden setting was an amazing experience for All that attended.

Theobroma cocoa is the scientific name for chocolate aka food of the Gods.  Cocoa has been around forever or for at least five thousand (5000) years.  Both Kelsick and Branker explained to the interns vital information pertaining to cocoa such as the bean has a bitter but rich nutty flavor, Cocoa has six enzymes, and they import rich cocoa beans from Dominica.

At the Antigua House of Chocolate or the “De Chocolate Shop” they make Coco Loco rum, Cocoa sticks along with pure white or dark chocolate.  The first thing they do is roast the beans on a hot pan and stir with wooden paddles, they are roasted for a total of forty-five (45) minutes. While roasting the cocoa beans give off an enzyme called theobroma which helps to make the consumer to feel relaxed.

Then the beans are grinded in a commercial grinder for thirty-six (36) hours where they are pulverized into a paste. This is where the interns took their first taste of natural cocoa paste which is the first stage into the chocolate process, at this point it has a bitter taste. Then they temper the paste to form chocolate sticks or slightly sweeten it with white chocolate. The interns got to taste the difference between before and after the cocoa was sweetened. The very last step requires to pour chocolate in a pan and add nuts or fruits then let it cool for fifteen minutes in a fridge.  The interns got to sample the final chocolate product.  Some preferred the white while others liked the dark but regardless of the preference the entire bunch has sweet tooth and were definitely “Chocolate” lovers.