The local “market” in St. George’s is little more than a Potemkin Village movie set for tourists. We wanted to stock up on raw cacao nibs for the trip (about 10 kilos…more or less 20 lbs.) but the old ladies—with their headscarves and hoop earrings and little woven baskets—at the market wanted 5 EC$ for a tiny little handful. Ridiculous (we are serious cacao consumers, not cruise ship dilettantes looking for souvenirs.)

Kris found a real source of cacao when he was walking across the island…a warehouse in the mountains where they buy, grade, roast and sell the nibs in large quantities, for more realistic prices. Unprocessed cacao nibs were EC$5.00 per pound. We are well-stocked, now. And, as a bonus, walking home with his sack of nibs over his shoulder, he went past a neglected cacao farm, and picked one of the fruit for me to draw. The pulp around the nibs is sweet and also edible, though you have to suck on many of them to get any satisfaction (the pulp’s thin).

What to do with cacao nibs? Roast them (we toss them in a small wok and stir them around over the stove till they start to smell like chocolate) and then shell and crush them to use instead of nuts in baked goods or salads. Crunchy, bitter, and unmistakeably chocolate.

Boil roasted nibs with something (like milk) and then strain to get “chocolate-flavoured anything”. Pound them with honey or condensed milk into a coarse paste (Kris does this, eats it with a spoon. The Barbarian. I’m just jealous because I can’t have condensed milk.)

I grind them up and use like I would any ground spice, in curries or sauces (e.g. the Mexican classic, mole Poblano), with chillies, plantains, chicken…

Or you can try making a basic chocolate at home…there are lots of recipes and ideas on the internet. I quickly found this one (but don’t have cocoa butter, to try it out) and it seems like a good place to start.