Rum and Cocoa factories

Today the entire group went together to the local rum and cocoa processing factory. Due to their location in relation to each other, we started at the rum factory. At 10 AM. The rum is made from sugarcane in a plant that has the only water wheel on the island, which has been around for over 200 years. Actually, a lot of the plant looked that old, except for some new plastic pipes which shone out in the gloom. I grimaced at the brown frothy liquid coming out of the pressed cane and sitting in the vats and tanks like some witch's bubbling, hideous brew, and thanked the stars that I don't particularly like rum. However, at the end of the tour we saw the distiller and were told that this factory prides itself on 75% proof rum! Well then. I take it back about the brew - not much could survive in that! The bottling process was interesting. There were 2-3 huge plastic tubs, waist high, full of distilled rum, in which one man dunked a bucket and poured it over a cloth into another plastic container with a tap at the bottom, while another man filled the bottles through the tap. He had a little help from a little friend (I take it not an employee, as he was pretty cheeky and left when we did).
 

Cocoa pod and beans

The cocoa processing factory was interesting - the plants need the shade so it looks less like a tended orchard and more like a wild forest. This factory exports their beans to many top chocolate makers because they are less bitter than others.







These are my feet in cocoa beans going through the process of making sure they get exposed to the sun and properly dried. Someone somewhere is going to pay a lot of money for the organic 85% dark chocolate that had my feet in it!