Day 5 - Kuapa Kokoo Cocoa Farm

Today was another early start unfortunately it started with some dreaded news, three of our group ended up with sickness during the night. So, leaving them in the care of Mr Street, the rest of us set off on our trip to one of Divine Chocolate's Cocoa farms.The rain was falling as we left but in no way did it reduce the heat and humidity. The journey was set to be around 2 hours and it was filled with our usual array of banter and sleep. As you would assume with what was described as a ‘jungle’, we had to leave the main roads and hit the rural paths in order to get there. The floor was flooded in places from the morning rain and made the mud very slushy as one of our drivers soon found out as his vehicle squirmed as he tried to accelerate up a hill. The path ahead seemed too waterlogged and slippery for us to push on so unfortunately we were unable to go to the cocoa farm that we had first planned. Thankfully our trusty guide Erica was on hand and was able to organise for us to visit another cocoa farm that was very close to where we were. So finally we arrived at the village where we were introduced to several cocoa farmers.


Erica with one of the younger cocoa farmers known as Francis then walked us through the village and into the bush to where all of their cocoa plantations were. Its towards the end of the harvesting season for cocoa but there was enough left for us to easily find some and be shown how it is processed. One of the resident farmers took a pod and skilfully hacked it open with his knife and showed us the white cocoa inside. It was offered around to us and was quickly taken by those craving the taste of chocolate only to find that it had a very fruity taste with a very muffled ‘It doesn’t taste like chocolate’ from Miss Juszczyk. And, after being told it was going to be bitter, Miss Malik bit into the cocoa to discover that it was indeed bitter. It was explained to us that the cocoa would be sealed between leaves of the banana tree and left to ferment before they were dried out and eventually sold.





















Upon returning to the village we were shown where the cocoa is stored where Erica gave us a little background into the selling to the cocoa. We were shocked to learn that only 200 Cedis (around £80) for 62.5kg of cocoa beans. All of the local kids were clearly inquisitive to see what these strange people were doing in their village but kept a cautious distance.

Lunch followed and was arguably the best meal so far consisting of rice, chicken, roasted plantain, a traditional bean dish and the best tomato sauce that you will ever taste.

Some people (Dombrandt) were uneasy at the amount of people watching us eat lunch but most of us were too hungry to notice.

We had a quick photo session with the local children and farmers after lunch to promote NEW DOUBLE BARS with our giant advertising bars. We then said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel. It was a relief to see that our sick comrades were feeling better. The rest of the afternoon was relaxed with a few of us hitting the pool to cool off.

We had dinner at the hotel and called it an early night to make the most of our last few days however after the busy day some of us resorted to a bit of relaxation at the bar! Haha LOL