Conrad Bali Launches Organic Cacao Tours

  • July 17, 2013
Conrad Bali Launches Organic Cacao Tours
The initiative compliments the luxury resort's commitment to locally-sourced, sustainable food produce, following the launch of its organic menu that saw it team up with carefully selected Balinese farmers to ensure some of the freshest healthy produce available reaches its guests.

The chocolate tour itself is also an extension of an established and popular theme the resort has pioneered by offering interactive and authentic excursions to connect guests with the travel destination. This includes the Rituals, Rice Fields and Rites of Passage experience that includes a purification ritual at the 10th century Tirtha Empul temple followed by Balinese massage and high tea in a tented camp in rice terraces of the pristine west of the island.

David Laval, Conrad Bali's Director of Food and Beverage & Culinary Operations, said the community-based culinary experience is ideal for families, couples or individuals as well as for business incentive groups with a yearning to discover the destination.

"It is a pleasure to be launching this experience and to be working with POD Chocolate. They are dedicated to reviving chocolate farming on Bali by working closely with disadvantaged local farmers to help them produce organic chocolate and give them a good living out of their cocoa trees - which we support fully," he said.

Conrad Bali cacao tour

"This way of farming has long since been forgotten in other parts of Indonesia where mass farming of low grade cacao is more prevalent, providing a poor livelihood to farmers. With this drive to rediscover the roots of this great tradition, guests can be inspired by not only the production process, but by actually making the chocolate themselves.

"This perfectly compliments the organic menu we launched recently and our dining ethos of providing unique culinary experiences to guests utilizing local suppliers and the very highest quality produce. It is a genuine farm to fork experience that takes diners on a journey that connects them with the true heart of Bali."

The culinary adventure kicks off with a suitably retro flavor, with transportation in an open top renovated iconic VW Safari to POD Chocolate for a tour of the hillside farm, accompanied by a knowledgeable master chocolatier.

Guests are then guided through the entire chocolate making journey starting with identifying the tiny and beautiful cacao flower through to the steps of growing the pods, picking, fermenting and drying the beans before returning to the chocolate factory itself to roll up their sleeves and learn how to make the world's most loved product.

More information: www.conradbali.com