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Grenada
Jungle village intent on conquering the world with finest of all chocolates
This is the age of globalisation. The whole world is being swamped by industrial chocolate from international concerns... The whole world? No! A village inhabited by unbending Grenadians now fights back: with a miracle recipe using home-grown cocoa beans – and a chocolate Asterix as the hero.
By Bernhard Grdseloff
Chocolate Axterix: Green in front of his factory...
...and his product: miracle recipe.
Mott Green came to the Caribbean aged 19. He built himself a bamboo hut in the middle of Grenada’s rainforest and lived off what nature provided. Ten years later the electrician from New York stepped out of the jungle and declared: “I’m going to make the finest chocolate in the world!”
“I brewed a drink of cocoa beans during my time in the forest, that whet my appetite,” the 40-year old tells us. “Grenada’s cocoa beans rank among the best and most expensive kind in the world.”
Of course the self-made Robinson Crusoe had no idea about how to make chocolate. “All we had were a few pages copied from a textbook.” Green and a partner from the village spent three years experimenting, inventing machines and trying different recipes. Green: “It wasn’t until 2001 that we really liked the taste of our own chocolate.”
The chocolate fundamentalists grow their cocoa organically, and in their little factory in the village of Hermitage in the north of Grenada they create a supreme fine dark delicacy according to their miracle recipe. “There are hardly any smaller producers who, like us, base their production on the cocoa bean,” says Green. “Most buy additional cocoa butter.”
The reward for their efforts: at the renowned “Academy of Chocolate” contest in London the Grenada Chocolate Company won the bronze medal last year. “The best chocolate in the world is an illusion, because tastes are so different,” contemplates Green. “But we’re definitely among the best!”
“I brewed a drink of cocoa beans during my time in the forest, that whet my appetite,” the 40-year old tells us. “Grenada’s cocoa beans rank among the best and most expensive kind in the world.”
Of course the self-made Robinson Crusoe had no idea about how to make chocolate. “All we had were a few pages copied from a textbook.” Green and a partner from the village spent three years experimenting, inventing machines and trying different recipes. Green: “It wasn’t until 2001 that we really liked the taste of our own chocolate.”
The chocolate fundamentalists grow their cocoa organically, and in their little factory in the village of Hermitage in the north of Grenada they create a supreme fine dark delicacy according to their miracle recipe. “There are hardly any smaller producers who, like us, base their production on the cocoa bean,” says Green. “Most buy additional cocoa butter.”
The reward for their efforts: at the renowned “Academy of Chocolate” contest in London the Grenada Chocolate Company won the bronze medal last year. “The best chocolate in the world is an illusion, because tastes are so different,” contemplates Green. “But we’re definitely among the best!”