Hotel Chocolat: Vom Baum zur Bar-Tour mit Verkostung in St. Lucia

Excellent experience. We did the complete tour. Good value for money. Good pace of tour-my wee one was kept well entertained. Chocolate making was brilliant fun for all. Lunch was delicious! All staff friendly and helpful. Would highly recommend this experience. ** please note there is a lot of walking/ stairs which people with mobility issues may find a challenge.

Our tour started in the Seederie, with an explanation of a number of aspects of cocao growing, including the grafting of young plants onto more established and resilient stems, and a bit about the cocao growing business on St Lucia. We were given the opportunity to name a plant and, in future, to check up on its progress (adopting a baby on St Lucia, as our guide, Vernice, put it). From there we headed onto the planation to look at and talk about trees in situ. This included Vernice gathering a pod wwhich one of us got to crack open so the rest of us could then suck on the raw seeds if we chose. With the Tree to Bean bit of the experience over we returned to the main buildings for Bean to Bar. This involved being given the tools and ingredients for a basic chocolate bar and having the chance to make one - grinding the nibs to paste in a hot pestle before adding and mixing the other ingredients. It's a lot harder than it seems - especially when it's taking place right outside the shop with a wall of chocolate bars on display! All the time our instructor is handing out not only advice but information on chocolate in general ("no nibs, no chocolate" - so technically white chocolate isn't chocolate as it contains no cocao nibs). The finished bars take about half an hour to solidify, during which time you can either shop for chocolate, cosmetics or other products, or pop to the on site food huts for a tasty lunch (meat, fish, salads, desserts - all tastes catered for). Enjoyable, informative - a thoroughly good time.

My husband and I did the Tree to Bar experience and had an incredible time - it was definitely one of the highlights from our St Lucia honeymoon. We’re from the UK so are lucky enough to have Hotel Chocolat shops here, and when we found out that their cocoa plantation was in St Lucia, we knew we had to go! We’re so glad we did. Our tour guide was engaging, funny, and informative. Walking through the rainforest was an incredible experience. We got to eat the cocoa beans straight from the tree, as well as try some edible flowers and learn all about how the cocoa grows. Making the chocolate was super fun and rewarding - it tasted incredible! Our chocolate making instructor was full of facts, and even took photos and videos of us making the chocolate on our phones which was great for us to look back on. Afterwards we bought some awesome gifts for our friends and family from the shops - they have so many gifts you can purchase. We also had a delicious lunch which was included in the tour (the food options were fantastic!). Everything about this experience was amazing, and if we ever returned to St Lucia we would definitely do this tour again (and the coffee bean one too!)