ONE WEEK TO TABASCO!

Only one week until we meet in Tabasco. We have 5 registered participants and still have a couple of strong possibilities sitting on the fence. Trip specifics are available on the previous post for anyone interested in joining us.
The Tabasco festival ( http://festivaldelchocolate.mx/portal ) has asked Chloe Doutre-Roussel to speak and so she will also be joining us for the first several days. We are both very familiar with things chocolate in Tabasco, having traveled together there a couple of times and also a couple of times separately.

Chloe brings, in addition to her amazing palate (the best I know!) and chocolate market knowledge, a native understanding of the culture. We will be double teaming you. Be ready to have knowledge oozing from your ears.
Please call or e-mail if you have any questions.

Steve
970.215.4848
devriessr@gmail.com

TABASCO CHOCO-TOUR with Steve DeVries

The Tabasco Chocolate Tour is to an area with centuries if not millennia of experience with cacao and chocolate.  This is the area that Hernando Cortez traveled and fought through on his way to meet Montezuma in the early 1500’s.

Fee for the trip, excluding airfare and alcoholic beverages is $1,750 single occupancy.  The tour will run with five participants, but can have up to eight. A  nonrefundable deposit of $900 is due with sign-up.  Once 5 have signed up, I will confirm the tour and the balance of $850 will be due.

 If you have any additional questions or want to sign-up, you may call me (Steve DeVries) at 970.215.4848 or e-mail me at steve@devrieschocolate.

Tour Schedule

11/20 Sunday
Arrive in Villahermosa (VSA) by international flight. Take taxi to the Best Western Madan and check-in for the night

Cacep Drying Patio

11/21 Monday
Tour of Cacep Chocolate factory, from Roasting to Conching. Also tour tour of “greenhouse” and  surrounding cacao plantation’
Tour of large cooperative Fermentation and Drying Facilities
Travel to Comalcalco and check into the Hotel Copacabana.

11/22 Tuesday
Tour of  factory for Chocolate Brondo in Paraiso. Watch process from Roasting to Conching,  Tour their cacao plantation and others on the area.
Return to Comalcalco and Hotel Copacabana

Finca Cholula - Senior Riverol with grinders

11/23 Wednesday
– Tour of Finca Cholula, including their artesanal chocolate production, their small chocolate factory machinery production and surrounding cacao plantation.
– Tour the Zona Arqueologica nearby. The only Maya site with the pyramids built of fired brick, not quarried stone.
– Return to Comalcalco and tour Hacienda La Luz and Museo Wolter.  Continue stay at  Hotel Copacabana

Cacao Cooperative Fermentation Boxes

11/24 Thursday
– Tour other cacao plantations and the fermenting and drying cooperative
– Travel to Villahermosa and check in to Best Western Madan. Attend  the Tabasco Chocolate Festival at 1:30 for round table discussion and later talks. They run to 8:00, but anyone can return to the hotel earlier.
– The 2nd Tabasco Chocolate Festival is an international event with professional translators.  Here is a machine translation to English by Alta Vista’s Babelfish  http://tinyurl.com/Festival-in-English .   Being a machine translation its a little rough but intelligible.

11/25  Friday
Morning tours of the Mercado Central and Maya museum/park La Venta. Attend Festival starting at 12:00 to 6:00
Stay at Best Western Madan

Don Tito and Monica at fermentation facility

11/26  Saturday
Travel to Pichucalco and tour the haciendas and fermentary of the Jimenez family. Also visit the Pichucalco Cacao Cooperative
Stay the the Hotel La Selva

Palenque Pyramid

11/27  Sunday
Early start to Palenque, a huge and amazing Maya site.  Google “Palenque, Chiapas, Maya” for more info and photos
. Five or six hours at Palenque and its museum. Return to Villahermosa and Best Western Madan.

11/28 Monday
Monday; Flights home.

Regards,
Steve DeVries
DeVries Chocolate
970.215.4848
steve@devrieschocolate.com