Early start with plans today.
Everybody up and out by 8:30, heading to Project Chocolat at the Rabot estate.
First we had a good, informative tour, mostly through rain forest. Seems they graft the most disease resistant root with the best tasting upper section. It also makes a plant that produces fruit in half the time… like 2 - 4 years. A cocoa plant requires little water, 1 - 1.5 liters a year(!), and only 4 hours of sunlight a day. So they plant other trees near cocoa plants to block sunlight and absorb water. We got to chew/suck on a ripe but fresh cocoa seed… the gelatinous coating was a bit sweet. We also got to eat a native flower that tasted like green apple and saw coffee plants loaded with beans.
After the tour we got to make chocolate bars, like legit make. We used a hot mortar and a pestle to pound the cocoa nibs until it made a paste… maybe 20 minutes of continuous pounding. Then cocoa butter followed by slowly adding powdered sugar. Then 10 minutes of mixing before pouring it into a mold. They put the bars in a freezer while we ate lunch.
Nice lunch and drinks… most things including cocoa and fresh juices. Then back to get our bars, look through the gift shop, and head out.
Oh… and Abigail drove back. Big road… and sketch road(!), all the way to the house!
Now the girls got in the pool and we are just snacking and lounging. Probably just going to relax the rest of the day.
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