There are plenty of interesting places to explore and fun things to do in Guadeloup! One day on Basse Terre Island while we were on our way to a hiking adventure, we passed a modest little sign at the side of the road that read ‘La Maison du Cacao’. Well, that certainly piqued our interest, so we visited the ‘house of chocolate’ a few days later – What a great way to spend an afternoon. Of course, I couldn’t resist also visiting some of the island’s unique rhum distilleries as well!
Did Someone Say, Chocolate?
After walking under the colourful entrance arch and paying a nominal fee, we wandered around the garden while we waited for our ‘English language’ presentation to begin. The small garden was packed with several different types of cacao trees along with other plants and trees as well as various informational exhibits. Reading the displays, we learned about the history of chocolate and how cacao trees found their way to the Caribbean. It was fascinating to learn that cacao trees were originally native to ancient Mesoamerica, present-day Mexico. The indigenous peoples used the cacao plant to make a drink from the dried cacao beans, typically mixed with hot water, hot peppers and sweetened with honey – Ya, sounds pretty tasty! Mesoamericans also used cocoa fat as a medicine for a variety of skin ailments.
After a few minutes, our host was ready to start the presentation. Just over a handful of us grabbed a seat and listened to our knowledgeable host tell us more about cacao, starting with the difference between it and chocolate as well as milk chocolate. Essentially, cacao (or cocoa in English) consists only of the plant’s bean and can be consumed with or without the fat, affectionately called butter. Chocolate on the other hand is cacao mixed with sugar while milk chocolate, as you guessed, consists of cacao mixed with sugar and powdered milk. She explained how the cacao bean, after drying and roasting is typically ground into a paste, then pressed to remove the fat content. The fat-free cacao can then be further ground into a dry powder for better storage and safer transportation. As I’m sure you know, cocoa butter is often used in cosmetics or other skin conditioning products.
Anyway, our friendly host told us all about the chocolate-making process, and to our delight, the presentation became more interactive. We happily sampled some raw fruit, then 100% pure cacao powder, followed by 90% cacao with 10% sugar, 70% cacao with 30% sugar, then several different 70% cacao mixtures before the piece-de-la-resistance – A warm chocolate beverage made from cacao, water and sugar.
Large cacao pods contain dozens of individual beans that are covered in white fruity flesh. This fruit pulp has a strong sweet & sour flavour and a fibrous texture while the brown seed (or bean) within the flesh tastes a bit like chocolate, but is quite bitter. The pure cocoa we sampled had an intense flavour while the 90% sample unsurprisingly tasted slightly sweeter. Our host explained that the chocolate products they sold on site were all blended with local cane sugar which provides a subtly different flavour and texture than chocolate commonly made with highly refined beet sugar. The 70% cacao chocolate we tried had a great crunchy texture and was pleasantly sweet, although the 70% cacao concoctions were even better! Some were delicately flavoured with what our host called Jamaican Allspice, which tasted to me as if contained a variety of ‘warming’ spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Another sample was made with hot pepper – This one really awakened my tastebuds. There was also another tasty concoction that contained 50% cacao with gluten-free flour made from a cassava-like plant – This sample had an excellent crunchy texture and delicious flavour reminiscent of a typical chocolate bar. Of course, the chocolate drink we sampled was as good as expected… OK, better!
Our ‘La Maison du Cacao’ host was extremely friendly and informative – The experience was absolutely worth the small price of admission. Once the presentation was complete, we were free to wander around the garden some more before visiting their storefront where we had a chance to purchase several products locally made by artisan chocolatiers. My favourite was probably their 70% cacao bar with a little sweet heat – Yum!
FYI – Another interesting and enjoyable attraction, Jardin Botanique de Deshaies (Botanical Gardens), is just 20 minutes further up the coast from La Maison du Cacao.
For more touristy as well as adventurous ‘things to do’ while visiting the French island of Guadeloupe, check out our Guadeloupe Vacations page.
Nothing Says the Caribbean, more than Locally-Made Rum
Anyone who follows our Active Caribbean Travel blog knows that I believe a vacation to a Caribbean Island is incomplete without a visit to a local distillery, and Guadeloupe was no exception!
While we visited a few rhum distilleries while staying in Guadeloupe, including ‘Distillerie Bologne’ and ‘Rhumerie Karukera / Distillerie Longueteau’, I want to tell you about the ‘Distillerie Reimonenq and Corsair Musee du Rhum’ (rum museum) as well as our favourite distillery on the island, the totally cool and old school ‘Distillerie Montebello’. Before proceeding, I will note that French “Rhum Agricole” (‘agricultural rum’) is made directly from sugar cane juice, not molasses like most other Caribbean rums. It is also common for French Caribbean rhums to be labelled as ‘vintages’, with classifications such as VO, VSOP, and XO.
One day on our way back from an exciting mangrove kayaking adventure near Saint Rose, Basse Terre, we paid a visit to the nearby Distillerie Reimonenq and Corsair Musee du Rhum. The grounds of the museum and storefront are quite inviting, with a nice garden decorated with what I’m assuming is old distillery equipment. That said, the feature attraction has to be the massive ceiba (silk cotton) tree that dominates the landscape! As we neared the front door of the museum, I just couldn’t resist getting a photo of myself as a pirate and I have to say, it’s a good look for me (lol). Once inside, we paid the nominal entrance fee and strolled around. We started on the first floor by reading the bilingual displays that told the story of the rhum-making process in Guadeloupe. We then ventured upstairs where we found a few rooms filled with a diverse set of exhibits and interesting artifacts.
I was first attracted to the room with a wall display housing a large number of machetes from all over the world – An interesting documentation and comparison of the traditional tools used to chop down sugar cane and other crops – A fascinating collection for sure.
I was then drawn into another room filled with amazingly detailed large wooden model ships. This is the stuff of dreams, transporting me back several centuries to imagine taking part in adventurous journeys at sea! They have displays of schooners, sloops, and large three-mast ships, mostly French, although I also noticed a model of the ship that Sir Francis Drake captained as well as the famous Mayflower (of American pilgrim lore. Yet another room was home to display cases filled with colourful insects and butterflies… It’s incredible to see such vibrant colours that exist in nature! When we had our fill of viewing all these curiosities, we went back downstairs to a small viewing room and watched a short video in English about the history of Guadeloupe, including, of course, the island’s storied rhum-making plantations. Upon leaving the theatre, we then had an opportunity to taste and purchase some of Distillerie Reimonenq’s finest.
One slightly overcast day, we knew the hiking and snorkeling wouldn’t be very good, so we headed to the other side of the island from where we were staying to visit the charming rustic Distillerie Montebello and we were glad we did. We showed up just in time as a small gathering was encircling an animated man standing in the middle of the open-air rum distillery factory floor. He started to give us a tour, although unfortunately for us, he gave the presentation entirely in French. While we have a basic understanding of the language, we were unable to discern most of what was being said – Too bad because our host seemed extremely passionate about what he was saying and showing us.
Anyways, he started by showing us a large mound of sugar cane that was just on the other side of a half-wall from all the distillery equipment, then pointed to a conveyor belt that fed short sections of sugar cane into the first machine. An old steam-powered engine was noisily powering equipment that was crushing the sugar cane and we watched as the juice flowed out into a large funnel and pipe. He also pointed to an escalator belt that was filled with the recently crushed cane known as bagasse that was being removed from the area – I suspect that he was telling us that the leftover cane was dried and then used as fertilizer as well as fuel for some of the machines in the factory.
Our super-friendly host, who I assume was an owner or senior manager of the company, then showed us a handful of large metal tanks where the fermentation of the cane juice was taking place as well as the tall column still they use for the distillation process. The amazing thing about this tour is that we were right in the middle of a working distillery, free to wander around to take a good look at all the noisy, steam venting machines. It appears that the majority of their whole rhum-making process takes place right here, except for the bottling and aging areas that we did not see. Eventually, we left the noisy factory floor and stepped outside where our host talked to us about, I don’t really know. What I can tell you is that he had a friendly but serious passion for what they do at Distillerie Montebello. His facial expressions and body language moved from exuberant, to playful and joking, then very serious and professional. At one point he went to his car and returned with a small metal case that contained little fancy curved drinking glasses. He seemed to be spending a considerable amount of time telling us about how to properly smell and taste fine cane syrup based rhum, then describing what we should expect to recognize when doing so – I believe I heard the French words for vegetal, floral, and sweet, as well as something related to the aging of rhum in American oak and French cognac barrels. It was then that I wished that I understood French better, as I felt that I could have learned a lot from our knowledgeable host.
Regardless, after about an hour or so of the tour, we walked around and entered the other side of the building that houses the Montebello Rhum “boutique” where we sampled various rhums that were of interest to us. I sampled a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old, while a few other visitors experienced their special 8-year-old rhums.
While we had a great time on the tour and appreciated the tasting, it was too bad for us that we didn’t understand more of what our gracious host had been saying. He spoke with intensity and passion about the distillery’s tradition and products – I felt robbed of some of the overall experience. At least I walked away with a bottle to help remember our enjoyable experience!
FYI – This blog provides just a small taste of some of the places to visit on Guadeloupe’s Island of Basse Terre. We also enjoyed the Musee du Cafe (Coffee Museum), and the impressive Fort Delgres, as well as recognizing the struggles of the island’s slaves at the Memorial de la Liberte!
ACT Staff
For more touristy as well as adventurous ‘things to do’ while visiting the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, check out our Guadeloupe Vacations page.
