A piece of chocolate a day keeps the doctor away, or if you're chocolate connoisseur Glenn Yeatman – make that a cheeky three pieces!
With the Flavours of Plenty Festival ready to be devoured by Bay of Plenty taste buds from today, March 24 through to April 2 – featuring 35 events, ranging from degustation dinners and desserts to a beekeeping experience, hands-on classes to a cook-off – Mount Maunganui's Solomons Gold Chocolate Factory has jumped on board to add some cocoa goodness into the mix!
Connect food community
This is the second year Tourism Bay of Plenty is hosting the festival, which aims to promote and connect the food community of Te Moananui ā Toi (the Coastal Bay of Plenty), stretching from Waihī Beach to Ōhope. Almost 200 growers, cafes, manufacturers, food trucks, tour companies and other food-related businesses are involved.
Originally from South Africa, Glenn is a fourth-generation coffee farmer, who switched from the coffee bean to the cacao bean when coming to NZ.
Glenn says his chocolate-making journey began in 2012 in Solomon Island's capital city Honiara.
'I brought some raw beans home from the plantation – popped it in the oven and when it smelled like it was ready, I took the roasted cacao beans out and let them cool overnight.
'Then I removed the husk and blended the cacao with sugar and made the first Solomons Gold Chocolate.”
Origin of the bean
Admittedly, as a kid Glenn didn't eat much of the cacao-fuelled delicacy.
'Chocolate in Zimbabwe wasn't great.”
But he's making it up for it as an adult. 'I have at least three pieces of our chocolate a day. Good job it's healthy and not full of sugar and nasties!”
So what makes the perfect block of chocolate? Glenn says: 'The origin of the raw cacao bean is very important”.
The factory's cacao beans come all the way from the Solomon Islands, where they are organically grown before arriving in Mount Maunganui. Then it comes down to roasting time and 'conching” which involves breaking down the cocoa bits until you have silky smooth choccy. 'We spend 200 hours in the ‘bean to bar process' – that's what it takes to make the perfect bar of chocolate,” says Glenn.
Factory tour
As part of Flavours of Plenty, a tour of The Solomon's Gold Chocolate Factory is on 2pm-2.30pm March 28, at Solomon's Gold, Mount Maunganui.
For more information on the Flavours of Plenty Festival offerings, visit: www.bayofplentynz.com/flavours-of-plenty/