The cocoa estate at Belmont is beautiful, lush, and filled with cocoa & fruit trees. Cocoa trees are planted with a mixed variety of tropical fruits - which affects the favor & taste of the cocoa fruit. The end result is that the combination of these fruits influence the flavor of the final chocolate produced, giving it a unique characteristic directly from the land where it is planted.
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| Fuits & spices grown at Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA (June 2017) |
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| Fruits & spices grown at Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA (June 2017) |
We took a tour of the estate, picking and tasting fresh trinitarian cocoa from trees that had been planted with banana, avocado & julie mango. The flavor is incredible, with the cocoa leaving a subtle taste & aroma of all these fruits on our palettes.
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| Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Banana trees. Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Banana trees. Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Avocado. Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA (June 2017) |
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| Avocado. Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Julie mangoes. Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| One Finger (Averrhoa bilimbi). Belmont Estate - GRENADA (June 2017) |
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Cocoa pods change color from green to burgundy then yellow when they are ripe.
Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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Raivo tastes fresh cacoa.
Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Congory Millipede. Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA (June 2017) |
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| Cocoa. Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA (June 2017) |
Multiple flower buds sprout on the trunk of the tree, then the pods develop, growing & ripening to a dark yellow shade. The process is ongoing, which makes for very fancy footwork to not damage lower flowers & developing pods when climbing a tree to reach a ripe pod up high.
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Cocoa pods grow directly on the trunks of the cocoa trees.
Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
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| Belmont Estate, St. Patrick - GRENADA / West Indies (June 2017) |
Chocolate mulch. After cocoa beans are fully dried, the beans are polished and sorted. Flat, moldy, germinated and broken beans are removed. Belmont Estate uses the mulch to fertilize all the fruit trees on the plantation.
