Why the Grenada Chocolate Company is the pride of the Caribbean – Telegraph

Mott

The Grenada Chocolate Company is just a house, painted in bold Caribbean colours, over the road from the prime minister’s modest residence. The only difference from the other wooden houses in the street are the solar panels among the palms in the front garden, and a huge home-made solar dryer where Green is experimenting with drying bananas.

The doors are open; Caribbean breezes, the same winds that will carry the Tres Hombres around the Azores to Britain, waft over a wooden veranda.

Former bedrooms and living rooms are home now to a mixture of antique, home-made and very 21st-century chocolate processing machinery. Green himself sleeps on a mattress in the corner of a staff coat room. The only air-conditioning is in the tiny moulding and wrapping room, which also serves as storage for the finished bars, each one embellished with a hand-written best-before date.

via Why the Grenada Chocolate Company is the pride of the Caribbean – Telegraph.

Island treat for chocolate lovers | Western Daily Press

cocoa

The Grenada Chocolate Fest will take place at the True Blue Bay resort from May 8 to 17, 2015.

The festival will take visitors to Grenada on a ‘tree’ to ‘bar’ cocoa journey where they will be able to sample the local chocolate products, take part in design workshops, hike through a cocoa plantation, and sample locally-brewed chocolate beer, rums, cocktails, and teas.

The chocolate-themed festival will take place at the True Blue Bay, a boutique resort located on the beautiful south coast of Grenada.

Visitors will be taken on a ‘tree to bar’ cocoa journey through various activities, such as the chance to be a farmer for a day on an organic cocoa farm where tourists will learn how to pick cocoa pods, harvest the beans, and prepare them for processing using traditional methods.

Visitors with a sweet tooth will have plenty of opportunities to sample the local produce throughout the festival, including locally-brewed chocolate beer and rums, chocolate cocktails, local cocoa tea, and chocolate-inspired meals.

Families can enjoy fun activities such as ‘dancing the cocoa’, ‘walking the cocoa’ and ‘scooping the cocoa’ at the Belmont Estate, and there will be an arts and crafts bazaar and fashion show selling art, jewellery and fashion that has been inspired by chocolate and cocoa. At the end of the 10-day festival there will be a charity gala dinner at the luxury oceanfront resort, with special dishes that have been prepared by renowned chefs on the Caribbean island.

via Island treat for chocolate lovers | Western Daily Press.

Mott Green, 47, Dies; Founded Grenada Chocolate – NYTimes.com

Mr. Green founded the Grenada Chocolate Company in 1999.

Its slogan was “tree to bar,” but that did not capture the breadth of the endeavor. Working with small cocoa farmers in Grenada and as many as 50 factory employees during peak operations, all of whom earned the same salary — and probably more than he did — Mr. Green dried cocoa beans in the sun; built, maintained and powered the machinery to make chocolate; packaged the finished product; and cobbled together an international network of distributors, including volunteer cargo cyclists in the Netherlands.

In 2011, the company received recognition from the State Department for its “contribution to the sustainable growth of rural economies by establishing Grenadian products in international markets; pioneering agrotourism; outstanding environmental conservation efforts; and promotion of organic farming.”

via Mott Green, 47, Dies; Founded Grenada Chocolate – NYTimes.com.