Belize Chocolate Making Experience in San Pedro

If you’re looking for a quick, low-key activity in San Pedro that’s a little different from snorkeling and beach time, the chocolate making class at the Belize Chocolate Company is a great option. It’s an affordable, interactive experience that’s both fun and informative.

First Impressions

The shop itself is small and easy to miss, tucked along Barrier Reef Drive on the east side of Ambergris Caye in San Pedro. Our class met on the shop’s back porch, which overlooks the docks. It was a peaceful, breezy setting to sit and learn.

Our group had about nine people, mostly adults, but there was also a family with a couple of younger kids.

What You’ll Learn (and Taste)

The class is a mix of short video clips and hands-on demonstrations, which keeps things moving and engaging.

You’ll follow cacao from plant to finished chocolate, including:

• Seeing real cacao pods and learning how they’re grown and harvested
• Tasting cacao in its raw, freshly opened state (a little sweet, a little tangy, with a texture almost like lychee)
• Trying a tea made with the leftover husks 
• Tasting cocoa butter
• Sampling the beans before and after fermentation
• Tasting ground cacao both with and without sugar

It’s an experience that made me realize how little I actually knew about chocolate before.

Hands-On Experience

This wasn’t just a sit-and-watch class, we also got to participate.

Everyone had a turn using a traditional grinding stone to crush cacao beans into a paste.

The Chocolate Tasting

Once the cacao was ground, we got to taste it in its pure form, and then sample several finished chocolates, including dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate.

I was surprised by how much I loved the taste of coarsely ground cacao nibs mixed with sugar. It had a rich, toasty, and slightly nutty flavor, and I’ve been craving it ever since we got home.

Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?

For just $20, this class is well worth it, especially if, like me, you don’t know much about how chocolate is made.

The chocolate making experience is:

• A nice break from water activities
• Short and engaging (great if you don’t want to commit a big chunk of your day)
• Genuinely educational
• Fun for both adults and kids
• Offered at multiple times throughout the day, making it easy to fit into your schedule

However, it might not be for you if:

• You’re looking for a long, in-depth class
• You want to tour a live chocolate production facility (this is just a shop, with short video clips showing the process)
• You’re hoping for hands-on involvement at every stage
• You’re expecting to make your own chocolate bar from scratch

It’s a relaxed, approachable introduction to chocolate making that added a little variety to our time in San Pedro, and I’m glad we did it!