Grenada, Isle of Spice, Nutmeg Processing and Cocoa/Chocolate Production, April 2010

Each nutmeg seed is sorted individually by hand once it has been removed from the pod.

After being sorted it is left to dry in a room, filled with light through which the ocean breeze blows.

After drying, the nutmeg is shelled by hand and tested for quality. This is done by dropping it into water. Nutmeg that floats is not used, the ones that sink to the bottom are retained.

Each bag is stencilled by hand, before being sent away to the docks for exporting.

Mace, which is the flesh that is found around the seed of the nutmeg is retained, dried and packaged for exporting.

Cocoa plants are ripe when the pod is yellow in colour. The inside of the pod above reveals a green cocoa bean. The white flesh is delicious to suck on. Cocoa farmers take their ripe, wet beans to the Grenada Chocolate Company, on the Blemont estate every Wednesday. Their beans are weighed and they are paid in cash. After that the beans are left to ferment in a hot box. From there they are placed on huge shiftable, outdoor trays where they are dried in the sun. Workers walk barefoot through them every half an hour to ensure airing and turning takes place. From here the beans are ground and turned into a paste for the purposes of chocolate making. Grenada is the world's second largest producer of Cocoa. It is also, next to Africa, the producer of the best quality cocoa. Grenada's chocolate is used by the likes of Black's and Black's, Lindt and Toblerone. Apart from chocolate they also produce Cocoa Tea which is pure hot chocolate, spiced with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Absolutely delicious. A cocoa ball which is the size of a ping pong ball is boiled in a pot with a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf. After that it is strained and milk and sugar is added.  

Cinnamon is bark. It is shaven off of a tree and left in the sun to dry. It only curls during the drying process.