Today we docked at the beautiful island of Barbados, home of Rihanna, Mt Gay rum and a chocolate factory? Really?
Yes, there is a chocolate factory in Barbados, and it's within walking distance of the cruise terminal - and for the low price of $18, you to can have a tour of the Agapey Chocolate Factory. They produce small, single sourced dark chocolate which is very rich!
I discovered this activity on the internet, and since we were going to be in Barbados on a Tuesday or Wednesday (the only days they do the tours) we decided what the heck.
The first fun activity is finding the place....it's close to the port, but the cabbies aren't always wanting to take you on such a short ride, so it's probably faster to walk, and as the streets aren't well marked, it's a challenge to follow the map. So the owner has basically listed on his website exact picture directions on how to find the place (it's on the backside of an industrial building) and if you follow them, you will find it!
I can't post too many pictures, as the owner did ask us not to post them on the internet, but I do have a few.
We began by tasting the raw materials, sugar and roasted cacao beans. There are apparently 4 different types of cacao plants, we tasted the 2 most known for their flavor. He buys them raw from Grenada and the Dominican Republic, and roasts them in a big fancy German roaster. The next step is to remove the shells from the cocoa nibs, which are then ground into chocolate liquor along with some sugar. They then smooth the chocolate so the particles are not distinguishable in your mouth (has to be less than 50 microns!) and then they conch the chocolate, which removes the bitter acids. Then it's time to temper the chocolate and add the appropriate flavors or fillings. Sounds so easy, right? Not so much really, getting the steps done correctly without screwing it up can be a challenge.
Anyway, that was the highlight of our day, we then went back to the ship (retracing our steps down the side streets!) and had ourselves a nice time out on the deck - it was really warm without a lot of wind, so spent most of the time in the shade.
The evening came, and we headed on down to Blu, which was super crowded and wasn't really what we wanted to eat anyway - so instead, we decided to see if Silk Harvest, the asian restaurant, had any openings - and lucky for us, they did! We were seated pretty quickly and then proceeded to have a delicious dinner served family style. My favorite was the cream cheese wonton appetizer......and I don't even really like cream cheese! The orange chicken and pepper beef were also good, and we skipped dessert after a meal like that. The Martini Bar wasn't too crowded when we went back, so we occupied some seats and people watched. This cruise has a very unusual demographic, so there was lots to see! Sometimes, you have to question what someone was thinking when they left their cabins wearing what they showed up in - it truly boggles the mind.
After the 80's dance party ended, we called it an evening and headed back up to our cabin to get some zzzz's. For tomorrow was Dominica!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment