Las americanas (y las italianas) and the Chocolate Factory

12 May 2012

This morning, we finally made the trip to Villajoyosa to tour the Valor Chocolate Factory!

The tour started with a short video about the history of Valor chocolate. The video was strange to say the least, and that's all I'm going to say about it.

Next, we walked through the museum. We saw different advertisements for Valor chocolate over the years. This one is a personal favorite. From left to right it says: before drinking Lopez's chocolate, after drinking Lopez's chocolate, and after drinking Lopez's chocolate twice a day. I only wish this were true because I would look like the woman on the far right!

We also learned about the process for making Valor chocolate. Valor chocolate gets cocoa beans from various parts of the world--including Ghana, Panama, and Ecuador. First, the cocoa beans are cleaned. Then, they are roasted and ground into small pieces called nibs.

We were allowed to try these nibs. They were extremely bitter--though this makes sense since they are 100% pure chocolate.

This hose is only for sugar

Next, the nibs are ground even further until a paste/liqueur can be removed from the cocoa. The cocoa is taken to be refined into a fine powder while the liqueur is pressed until they can extract cocoa butter--which is used later in the chocolate making process.

The powder is placed in a machine (with sugar, cocoa butter, and milk) that warms and churns it for hours until a perfect consistency is reached. Then, the chocolate is placed into molds and allowed to cool.

 

After touring the tasting chocolate at the factory, we walked down to the beach for lunch. We got to see the beautiful colored houses down by the beach front.

During a tour at the archaeological museum, I learned that the houses were colored so that sailors could quickly recognize their own houses. People used to put flags in the windows to signal a birth or a death. So if you lived in the green house next to the red house, you could look at the windows and easily be able to tell if anything had happened while you were away.