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Chocorart: A Refined Affair
Posted by Zoë | November 1, 2009 | Categories: Tourism | Comments Off
“Forget love … I’d rather fall in chocolate…” – Anonymous
Sitting at Chocorart looking out at magnificent rainforest I sipped my freshly made hot chocolate and sighed with pleasure… Chocolate and Humans were made for each other.
It’s the smell isn’t it, or is it the taste or the velvety feel of chocolate melting on your tongue? Ah, but it’s all of that and more. Our love affair with chocolate is an ongoing global passion … we give it as gifts, use it to express love or friendship and associate it with luxury. It’s indulgent, delicious, uplifting…chocolate makes you smile.
A tour around Chocorart in Playa Chiquita is a pleasure trip for the senses culminating in a wonderfully aromatic tasting session!
Following owner Marcos along woodland paths it wasn’t only the coloured cacao pods that caught our attention, but also the beauty of the surrounding forest, alive with butterflies and birds.
As we tasted the fruits of a cacao pod and chewed on a sliver of sugar cane there was a subtle aroma of chocolate wafting from cacao beans drying in the sun.
Meanwhile at the rancho Claudia had been busy….and on arrival we were presented with the purest hot chocolate I’ve ever had. Delicious, smooth and strong, it was a taste-bud sensation. As we listened to a little about the history of chocolate, Marcos crushed the beans and a heady perfume of chocolate filled the air.
No wonder the Aztecs considered chocolate as precious food for the Gods, using it in religious ceremonies and also in trade. And did you know that Costa Rica was the last country in the world to use cacao beans as currency? My mind drifts with the mouth-watering possibility of paying in chocolate…
Originally from Switzerland (also synonymous in my mind with chocolate) Marcos & Claudia are mines of information on ‘chocolatey facts’, having been farming their cacao plantation and creating organic chocolate here in Costa Rica for the past 15 years.
Their hand rolled chocolate batons, some with ingredients such as orange peel direct from their farm, are on sale in this area and further afield. Whenever I taste them I’m transported back to that fun sunny day that smelt of chocolate.
But before we leave, Claudia and Marcos have a final treat for us…A paste of organic chocolate and brown cane sugar with a slice of banana. It looks like the perfect chocolate mousse and tastes…yes, you guessed it: sublime.
There’s one little problem I should warn you about before you decide to take a Chocorart tour: you may find it very difficult in future to accept anything other than the purest in chocolate perfection. You have been warned: Once Tasted, Never Forgotten.
To take a guided tour of Chocorart:
Telephone: 2750 0075
Tour duration: Approximately 2 hours.
Advice: Wear closed shoes.
Price per person: US$22
Reduced rates for children: please inquire.
Spanish, English, French, Italian and German spoken.
Email: Chocorart@racsa.co.cr
 Article by Zoë Courtier. Zoë along with her husband Tom Keller are the proprietors of Geckoes Rainforest River Lodge. Two luxurious holiday houses with private plunge pools in a magnificent rainforest and river setting minutes from Playa Cocles. More information at www.geckoeslodge.com |
 Gecko Trail Adventures also offers a combination tour which includes a visit to a local indigenous Bri Bri family which grows their own Cacao and demonstrates the process of making chocolate from scratch as they’ve been doing it for generations. You can get details on that tour here. |
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