Guadeloupe 2015: April 24

What to do on our last full day?  We aim to combine a few Basse-Terre-specific sites with some shopping.  Unfortunately, a concerted search does not turn up the Maison du Bois, where we hear there will be excellent woodwork and art; we learn later that it closed and was incorporated into a more tourist-oriented park.  “Ce n’est pas la même” the elegant lady at the Maison du Cacao, our next stop, tells us emphatically.  But it turns out that the MdC is a worthy substitute in terms of learning a lot, testing our French, and of course, the free samples are way more tasty. 

Now, you might think that something called the House of Cacao would be kind of hokey.  But you would be quite wrong.  OK, there are little panels where you are asked questions about cacao cultivation, and then you raise the panel to see if you got it right.  If your chosen answer is wrong, you get a frowny-face.  But if correct, a winking smiley-face with a thumbs-up!  How do you know the answers?  Because you have read the helpfully-translated-into-English panels interspersed between the many different kinds of cacao trees, which have lots of historical and production information about cacao.  Did you know, par example, that among the many chemical benefits of cacao, one of them is “caffeine:  well-known for its bracing benefits, it raises resistance to tiredness (useful for love time), favors mental activity (useful for seduction), and increases vigilance (for libertine nights, for example.)” 

I think I might set up a consulting company that offers English services to touristic ventures.  I could live in a place like Gwada, and spend my days telling people how write things.  Perfect!

At the end of the windy path through the cacao orchard we learn the basics of bean processing – fermenting, drying, roasting – and then we wait for the little presentation and tasting.  

You will note I am not using the word chocolate.  That is because we are not talking about chocolate here.  We are talking about the product of the tree, which may be used to make various things that are called chocolate.  But woe to you who refer to the mass of freshly roasted and ground beans that we feel and taste (bitter and dry but chocolatey) as chocolate.  The final presentation, which takes almost an hour and is delivered entirely in French, is given by a formidable woman whose apparent goal in life is to educate cacao-ignoramuses about the bean, the process, and the products.  We never learn her name, but we will never forget the intensity with which she delivered her gospel du cacao.  I think we understood what goes into the drink that can be called chocolate (cacao mass, sugar, and water and maybe some cinnamon), and a tablette (a bar), and that milk chocolate is not that but rather is chocolate with milk added.  We definitely get how the masse du cacao (what we’d call chocolate liquor) is produced, and that cocoa is most decidedly not cacao nor is it chocolate and you are in big trouble if you call it something different. 

We would remember more but once I indicated that I understood a little French the entire presentation was given in it, with the occasional pause and stare at me so that I could translate for my family.  Which I couldn’t, much, so I’d kind of mumble something at them and hope that she was satisfied and would continue.  I think we were exhorted to teach our children the difference between cacao and cocoa and chocolate.  Our instructor was very severe but when she smiled she became quite beautiful.  And she had lots of samples, although we had to make our way through beans and masse and nibs and unsweetened tablettes before we got to the good stuff.  I don’t think they even sell chocolate with milk there; it is all 70% or higher.

Needless to say we buy a whole lot of very good chocolate before we leave the Maison du Cacao and find lunch and a beach for the cloudy and slightly rainy afternoon.  Interestingly, everyone from dinner last night was at Chez Lilline on Grande Anse for lunch today, so I guess they got served eventually.  We must all be reading the same Guide Vert.

Big excitement this evening:  a banana quit got in the house and Izzy and Peter named it Alfonso and helped it to escape to the outer world.  Isabel feels that this is a highlight of her trip.