When I started here, I didn’t know anything about chocolate-it was a whole new experience for me. I started my journey in the pastry-making kitchen, but soon I also started working with the Chocolate Lab-here, we took the fermented and dried beans from the on-site farm and mixed them with sugar and other flavors used for manufacturing Chocolate candies together. At first the laboratory was small, but as time passed, production began to grow, and they needed someone who worked in the laboratory full-time.
I spent about a year learning the basics of chocolate making, and I learned everything at work. Even now, I have never stopped learning new things, and I will use the Internet to find new ways to make recipes more creative.
I work about eight hours a day. When I came in, there were many things to do. This includes the different chocolate tours and immersive experiences we offer-one of them is called a “discovery” tour, where guests can come in and make their own chocolate bars and then take them home, which is really fun.
Chocolate itself actually starts with fruit. When you only taste the fruit itself, there is no taste of chocolate. After removing the beans from the pod, and finishing the process of drying, fermenting and roasting them, it will exude flavor.
The resort also has the Emerald Estate, a farm, which is also part of the hotel. Therefore, the entire process of growing and making chocolate is done on site.
I also need to try everything I create to make sure it tastes right! I need to make sure it is correct before using it for any purpose or selling it to our customers.
Therefore, if you don’t like chocolate, then this is not the job for you! I really like making decorations and various designs, such as chocolate decoration for desserts, including flowers, wedding hats and cake hats, because I like to learn and try new things.
The cocoa tree has become part of Saint Lucia’s history and culture for about 200 years, but in the past, only plant cultivation and beans drying were carried out on the island before it was shipped to a chocolate manufacturer in London, France​​里. And Belgium.
Chocolate making has recently become an important part of Saint Lucia’s culture, and it is also an important reason for people to travel to this island. Now everyone is trying to follow the work we are doing here-in fact, several people who work for us have opened their own shops here.
We even had a few guests who came here to do our “discovery” workshop. After they learned how to make chocolate from me, they went home, bought their own equipment and started making chocolate by themselves. Knowing that I have contributed to this makes me very happy.
The country was basically closed during the pandemic, so we had to pack everything here and store it properly to make sure it stays the same when we close the hotel and there are no guests in the past few months.
Fortunately, our harvest can be divided into two seasons-spring and late autumn. Before the COVID epidemic, we had almost completed all harvesting work this spring. Now, technically speaking, we are between the two seasons and we have not lost any crops.
The beans will be kept for a long time, and the made chocolate will also be kept for a long time, so it will not deteriorate there. During the downtime, we have not yet dried, ground and made the production of chocolate bars. Since the hotel continues to sell chocolate online and people continue to order it, it is a great thing that we have not sold out yet.
We have many different recipes to create flavor, especially for bars. We use lemongrass, cinnamon, jalapeno, espresso, honey and almonds. We also offer many flavors of sweets, including ginger, rum, espresso and salted caramel. My favorite chocolate is cinnamon chocolate, we harvested cinnamon on the farm for this-nothing else, it’s such a wonderful fusion.
Just like wine, beans grown all over the world have different nuances. Although they are similar beans, they are actually the growing season, growing conditions, rain, temperature, sunlight, and climate conditions that affect their flavor. In our miniature, our coffee beans are climatically the same because they all grow very close, even though we mix a variety of coffee beans.
This is why every batch must be tasted. You must ensure that the beans are mixed enough, so the chocolate to be mixed has a good flavor.
We use chocolate to do beautiful things. Chocolate pastries, chocolate croissants and cocoa tea, this is a very traditional Saint Lucia drink. This is cocoa powder, mixed with coconut milk or regular milk, and has cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, Baileys and other flavors. It is made as a morning tea and is very medicinal. Everyone who grew up in St. Lucia drank it as a child.
We also use cocoa, chocolate brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate velvet desserts, chocolate banana chips to make chocolate ice cream-we can continue. In fact, we have a chocolate menu, everything from chocolate martinis to chocolate teas to chocolate ice creams and others. We place great emphasis on the use of this chocolate because it is so unique.
We kind of inspired the chocolate industry in Saint Lucia, which I think is very important. Looking to the future, this is something young people can start to do, and realize that when you make this handmade chocolate, the quality and difference between commodity chocolate candies and fine chocolate is huge.
Not “candies”, but beautifully made chocolates. It is good for the heart, good for endorphins, and gives you a sense of tranquility. I think it’s great to find chocolate as a medicinal food. People do relax when they eat chocolate-they are enjoying chocolate.
One thing we want to do is “sensory tasting”, we are here to provide people with the opportunity to explore their senses and matching chocolate, so that they can better understand their own eating and eating style. Many times, we just eat without considering the ingredients of the food.
Tasting a piece of chocolate and then melting it in your mouth can encourage eating. Let the aroma rise to your nostrils and enjoy the taste of chocolate on your tongue. This is a true self-discovery experience.
suzy@lstchocolatemachine.com
www.lstchocolatemachine.com
Tel/whatsapp：+86 15528001618(Suzy)