Chocolate wishes on St. Lucia

PAT LEE

What if I told you there was a magical land with emerald blue waters, beautiful crescent shaped beaches at the base of majestic volcanic mountains – and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

So much chocolate, in fact, that you can check into a resort nestled in a cocoa plantation, have a spa treatment featuring cocoa, or eat meals that incorporate the delicious results of the thriving industry.

Welcome to St. Lucia, apparently the land where all your chocolate wishes can come true.

When I was first invited to visit the lush island in the eastern Caribbean, it didn’t occur to me that chocolate would be a common theme running through the trip.

I was already highly excited about sweet indulgences of another kind, namely stays at two resorts with edge-of-cliff suites overlooking the iconic Pitons with Insta-worthy features like no fourth wall between you and the panoramic view of the mountains and the Caribbean Sea below, along with in-suite infinity and splash pools.

The sunrises and sunsets would be eye-popping (and were).

I had my first memorable open-wall experience at Jade Mountain Resort with an amazing suite – rightly dubbed a “sanctuary” by the charming butler who showed me around.

Because the hotel is perched on the side of a mountain, the rooms are entirely private with only the odd bird visitor on the patio and not a bug that I could see.

The second resort to wow with its amazing location was Ladera, another gorgeous property perched on the side of a mountain and offering similar views of the Pitons thanks to the unique open wall concept.

The most famous feature of St. Lucia is its Pitons — two volcanic spires that rise up out of the ocean. They can be seen from many places around the island. PAT LEE PHOTOS

There’s nothing like the ocean breezes wafting into your suite as you float in your in-room pool.

True decadence. But the decadence was only beginning as learning about the country’s very old, but re-emerging chocolate industry was part of the fun in St. Lucia.

Ladera, for example, is adjacent to one of Soufriere’s oldest and most famous cocoa plantations.

The Rabot Estate is now owned by British chocolatier Hotel Chocolate, which operates the Boucan Resort. There, guests and visitors can take part in various programs and tours that show the tree-to-bean and bean-to-bar chocolate-making process.

At Jade Mountain, the chocolate magic also happens in-house. Guests can tour the resort’s 16-hectare Emerald Farm in Soufriere, where 2,000 cacao trees supply ingredients for the hotel’s Chocolate Laboratory, the source of many sweet treats for sale and used in the eateries at Jade Mountain and sister resort Anse Chastanet.

St. Lucia’s chocolate history dates back to the 1700s but waned when the banana industry elbowed it aside. But cocao production has re-emerged as an important source of revenue in recent years with hotels, restaurants, spas and chocolatiers fully embracing the potential of the decadent product.

Chef Orlando Sachell, owner of Orlando’s in Soufriere, said he is thrilled to see chocolate emerge as a key element in St. Lucian cooking given its place in the island’s history. The theory is that the volcanic soil provides a special richness to the cocoa beans. Or perhaps, as Chef Orlando surmises, it’s because “we are an island of love.”

“I’m so happy cocoa has become the trend. A few months ago, I did a fivecourse taste of cocoa menu. It went into the soup, into the salads … I’ll make you something with cocoa today.”

He then proceeded to whip up a tasty bite of seared tuna on grilled watermelon with an accompanying drizzle of chocolate.

Another St. Lucian who is fully embracing the island’s chocolate past and future is Maria Jackson, owner of Cocoa Sainte Lucie.

During a demonstration at her small-batch production base in Canaries, she expertly cracked open a ripe yellowish cacao pod, revealing, well, not exactly what you might expect.

The pod, about the size of a football, is filled with cocoa beans surrounded by a white gelatinous goo that is surprisingly sweet. You would never guess the end use of this unlikely looking fruit. But from this alien-looking seed pod comes her delicious hand-crafted chocolate sold at airports and other locations around the island.

Jackson said she became fascinated with chocolate and its production while growing up and exploring estates owned by her grandfather and sister Eroline Lamontagne.

Lamontagne, with her husband Lyton, owns the eco-friendly Fond Deux Plantation and Resort, an actual working 250-year-old cocoa plantation set in the heart of the rainforest.

Visitors can watch the drying and processing of the beans while chocolate production is also done on site.

As if a visit to St. Lucia wasn’t sweet enough – or as Chef Orlando put it, “Come for the cuisine and everything else is free” – the exploration of its cocoa offerings and culture is the icing on the (chocolate) cake.