Sunday
21st May 2017
SHE
SAID:
We
had a tour around Charley's Chocolate today. t
is about 15 minutes from the house.
They are a small family owned
plantation on Mt Etna (between El Arish & Mission Beach), who
decided to try & grow cocoa plants & have had great success.
Their first chocolates that they made won gold, silver & bronze
awards at the Melbourne Fine Foods Awards last year.
On
the tour you learn about the history of cocoa, chocolate, the
growing, & production processes which are very labour intensive.
The 70% cocoa chocolate is lovely.
 |
| Cocoa Plantation |
 |
Ripe fruit - yellow, still growing - green, black - dead fruits
(not enough energy in the tree to mature) & flowers
|
 |
| Close-up flower |
 |
| Growing fruit |
 |
| Whole fruit with cocoa seed inside |
 |
| Dried seed & nib (chocolate centre) |
 |
| Roasted seed & nibs (chocolate inside) |
 |
| The finished product - yummy! |
HE SAID:
We have been to a few so-called chocolate factories over the years, but they all just used bulk-purchased chocolate buds as a starting point for making their chocolates. This place, Charley's, actually grow the cocoa plants, and demonstrated the process of chocolate making from planting to plate. It was quite interesting, and dare I say, educational.
We have been to a few so-called chocolate factories over the years, but they all just used bulk-purchased chocolate buds as a starting point for making their chocolates. This place, Charley's, actually grow the cocoa plants, and demonstrated the process of chocolate making from planting to plate. It was quite interesting, and dare I say, educational.
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