Grenada Chocolate Festival: The Cocoa Experience

The Grenada Chocolate Festival. It’s a truly unique week in The Caribbean and one that we can highly recommend.

We’ve discovered the history behind the festival, what happens at the chocolate events, and our personal experiences amongst the chocolate goodness. Learn about the week from an eco travel perspective!

Chocolate History in Grenada

While Grenada has grown cocoa for hundreds of years, it’s primarily been for export purposes only. It wasn’t until 1999, with the establishment of The Grenada Chocolate Company, that chocolate production on the island really took off.

Since then, there have been several chocolate production farms start up around the island, all of which provide unique “tree to bar”, organic produce.

Grenada is now known as the “Caribbean Chocolate Capital” and for good reason. The chocolate made in Grenada is some of the best in the world.

What is the Grenada Chocolate Festival

Since its inception in 2014, the chocolate festival has been an annual celebration of all things cocoa (often spelt cacoa, but not in Grenada).

Magdalena, the owner of one of Grenada’s most sustainable resorts, True Blue Bay started the event with the idea of celebrating local produce.

Over the years it has grown to see visitors and chocolatiers from around the world come together to explore, share and taste Grenada’s amazing organic produce.

Chocolate Festival Activities & Crafts

Though-out the festival week there are is a wide range of different activities on offer (all with a chocolate influence, of course)

This years festival activities included:

• Opening ceremony & party
• Local art class painting your own reusable Calabash (traditional bowls made from Calabash fruit)
• A “Hash” (organised run) through a chocolate plantation
• Chocolate themed fashion show
• Yoga Chocolate tasting meditation
• Making cocoa beauty potions
• Pairing chocolate with coffee, food, beer & rum
• Making chocolate
• Arts and crafts with cocoa
• Visiting cocoa farms and plantations for tree to bar experiences

When is The Chocolate Festival?

The Grenada Chocolate Festival is an annual event every May/June. It is normally a week-long event and this year it went from May 31 – June 8, 2019.

Where is The Chocolate Festival?

True Blue Bay Resort is the hub for the chocolate festival. However, events were spread across the following locations:

• Grenada Chocolate Company
• By Diamond Cocoa Estate and Jouvay Chocolate Factory
• Silver Sands Hotel
• Belmont Estate
• West Indies Beer Company
• Crayfish Bay
• House of chocolate St Georges
• Tri-Island Chocolate Farm
• La Sagesse
• Mount Cinnamon
• The Tower St Paul’s
• Vendors Market, Grand Anse Beach

Our Participation in The Chocolate Festival

There were around thirty organised events at this years chocolate festival. We attended a handful of them and have to say that it was a great experience. These are the events that we participated in:

Calabash Bowl Painting

Location: Dodgy Dock, True Blue Bay Resort

As a prequel to the opening ceremony, we picked our own Calabash Bowls and painted them with the help of a local art instructor.

To keep with the festival theme, the bowls had a stenciled outline of cocoa pods on them. It actually gave some direction to the task at hand which was nice.

Our instructor indicated to us her suggested colour pallet and painting method, though left it to the crowd to freestyle as we pleased. Thinking of ourselves as relatively artistic, we continued to freestyle. The results…well, you be the judge.

Sitting on the seaside deck with a cool breeze and a beer on the table (amongst an array of paint) it was a great opportunity to ease into festival mode and meet some of the other guests (and a couple of the chocolatiers) involved in the week.

Opening Ceremony

Location: Dodgy Dock, True Blue Bay Resort

We were greeted by a familiar face walking into the event. Jim, of the Blue Light Gin Distillery (Grenada). He had an iced container filled with a chocolate-gin martini and was pouring it out to adventurous guests.

Chocolate and gin? It’s not really something that you would think goes together. But the taste was surprisingly tantalizing. We made several more trips back for the chocolate martini throughout the night.

A seemingly endless array of local dishes made choosing a plate rather difficult. There were some vegetarian options on the menu between local specialties (Oil Down is a favourite composition of several local types of meat, vegetables, and dumplings in a dry stew).

All of the local chocolate companies had stands set up with an array of tasting methods. There were tasting nibs, a fondue fountain, chocolate balls, chocolate bars, chocolate logs and a whole shelf of baked chocolate goods.

Needless to say we tried them all.

One of the island’s best local musicians kicked off and the party stepped up a notch, with the dance floor rocking the deck until early hours of the morning.

Staying on an Organic Chocolate Farm

Location: Crayfish Bay Organic Chocolate Farm

Staying on the farm was not actually part of the festival. But we decided to do it anyway.

We booked the “Treehouse” at Crayfish Bay and spent two nights celebrating life with ocean views and wafts of cooking chocolate in the air.

The property has a small creek, however, there wasn’t much water at the time (due to it being dry season). Following the creek-bed, up into the cocoa plant fields, we saw all kinds of local fruits growing and of course plenty of cocoa pods.

There is a real family-run feel at Crayfish Bay. It’s super laid back and you can see the whole chocolate making process happen without feeling like you are intruding.

You can book the Treehouse on Airbnb. Click here to get a newbies Airbnb coupon.

Local Food Cart Night

Location: Dodgy Dock, True Blue Bay Resort

This event happens every Wednesday night at Dodgy Dock. But this week had a chocolate flair. With more of the chocolate companies handing out free samples and chocolate art on display. Once the band gets going, it’s a real party vibe and the dance floor normally goes till late.

Visiting A Rastafarian Chocolate Farm

Location: Tri Island Farm, St. Andrew’s

One of the highlights of the week was experiencing the “Rasta Roots” of this organic chocolate farm.

The family uses traditional style farming (now called permaculture). It basically means that between the cocoa plants there is a range of other fruit species. These other fruits both assist in the growth of the cocoa trees while adding unique flavours to the cocoa pods themselves through a kind of osmosis effect.

Guided through the farm by the owner and his family we were shown various harvesting methods they use on the property. This included pulling up huge ginger roots, peeling cinnamon trees for their bark and collecting honey from their hive.

Ending the tour with a delicious Ital (vegetarian) soup by the property’s creek, served in Calabash bowls was a nice touch. We also learned that you can basically rub a cocoa pod on a rock with water and it turns into a gel/soap. That’s what this Rastafarian family use to wash their hair (they’ve all got long locks, so it must be working).

Closing Ceremony

Location: Esthers Bar, Grand Anse

Esther’s Bar at the Vendors Market at Grande Anse Beach was the final closing ceremony.

In a nice way to wrap up the week. A fashion show (with some cool sustainable clothing styles) unfolded between the tables of chocolate and drinking onlookers.

Our favourite piece was a dress made from leaves and potato sack mesh. It spelled “Cocoa Empress” on the back. She really rocked that piece.

Notable Sustainable Practices at The Chocolate Festival

There was a great push to keep the festival as sustainable as possible thanks to the team at True Blue Bay Resort.

A few notable sustainable practices include:

• Local Produce – The whole festival is really a celebration of the local industry. There was a big emphasis on the local aspect, supporting local farmers and encouraging local business.
• Organic Farming – The farms contributing to the festival are run organically. This is a huge win for the chocolate industry, encouraging organic practices should be seriously celebrated.
• Local Artists & Business – there were several arts and crafts events and artists highlighting their talents during the festival week. It was great to see the local talent.
• Reusable Cups – Drinks at the bar events were served in reusable cups (or glass), and there was a stand at True Blue selling reusable bamboo straws to go.
• Cardboard Takeaway Boxes – while most of the food was served at the resort on crockery, you could get takeaway in a cardboard box (there were no plastic containers!).
• Vegan Chocolate Option – There were a couple of vegan and vegetarian dishes during the festival and an option for a vegan chocolate tart for dessert!

>> For more reusable and sustainable ideas, check out our Eco Store . Otherwise, it’s always a good idea to say no to plastic when you can!

Overall Experience & Recommendations

The Chocolate Festival week in Grenada was a great experience. It’s something that we’ve not done or seen before, so it was a real eye-opener into the world of chocolate (which we love).

It was really interesting to see the chocolate-making process. But the best part was getting into the farms and really being able to see, touch, smell and taste the cocoa at its different stages. You can also stop by some of Grenada’s waterfalls and beautiful beaches on your way.

For anyone with an interest in chocolate and a desire to check out the Spice Island of Grenada, this is a great week to attend. We recommend staying at True Blue Bay resort during the Chocolate festival so you can be close to all the events. Alternatively, there are some great Airbnb stays in Grenada.

Eco Travel Guide to Grenada

Grenada is such a diverse and beautiful island, full of natural beauty. For ideas on what to see (natural wonders, vegetarian food options, low impact activates and more) check out our Eco Travel Guide to Grenada or download our free Eco Travel eBook for ideas on sustainable travel.

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