Chocolate Factory

Discover heaven for chocolate lovers on a St Lucia chocolate tour and chocolate-making class at Hotel Chocolat’s Rabot Estate in the Caribbean, taking you on a journey from tree to bean to bar.

From an offering to the Mayan gods to a $50 billion business, chocolate has taken over the world. This little piece of heaven in a bar has millions of devotees around the world, whether you’re more a 90% cocoa or Cadbury’s Buttons type of chocolate-lover.

Even the scientific name of the cocoa plant means ‘food of the gods’ in Greek. But why do we love chocolate so much? Is it the ratio of fat to sugar, or the feel-good chemicals? Either way there’s something about this bean that makes it irresistible. I set out to uncover its secrets on a St Lucia chocolate tour with Hotel Chocolat – from tree to bar.

South America might be the ancestral home of chocolate, but the Caribbean also has a long history of chocolate-making. Cacao trees only grow in a limited region, around 20° north and south of the Equator. And St Lucia has the perfect growing conditions, with a rich volcanic soil and a tropical climate with plenty of sunshine and rainfall.

From the 1700s, St Lucia’s cacao beans have been exported to Europe and later the US where they’re made into chocolate. But bananas were the island’s main export until the 1990s, when changes to trade agreements led to a collapse in the banana trade.

Since then local farmers have turned back to cacao farming. And rather than exporting all their produce, more is staying in St Lucia where there are a growing number of local chocolate producers. You can eat, drink or even have spa treatments with it, and there’s a Chocolate Heritage Month in August to celebrate the island’s chocolate history.

One of the best places to get a taste of St Lucia’s chocolate renaissance is the Caribbean base of British chocolate brand Hotel Chocolat. The company called themselves Hotel Chocolat because they thought the taste of a good chocolate could transport you to a new place. But they’ve since expanded and started an actual hotel in St Lucia too.

The Rabot Hotel* is set in the hills above Soufrière in southwest St Lucia, with panoramic views of the Pitons, the island’s most famous landmark. There’s chocolate for sale, chocolate on the menu, and the building is even a chocolatey shade of dark wood. But it’s not some kind of chocolate theme park – it’s a working cocoa plantation too.