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The Ecuador Chocolate Experience

There are chocolate lovers, the people who choose a chocolately dessert from the menu to end their meal and there are chocolate connoisseurs. To move from one category to the other may be as simple as travel to Ecuador. To understand the nuances of wine and not know chocolate is like knowing about wine without being acquainted with cheese, a great loss. If you plan to accompany your chocolate with a glass of red wine, you don’t want the chocolate too sweet. On Ecuador tours, you will be able to smell the luscious aroma of the country’s most famous cacao, the Arriba bean, by rubbing the chocolate bar near your nose, and letting it melt on your tongue instead of chewing it.

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The Ecuador Chocolate Experience

And then there is Ecuadorian hot chocolate, the drink, another experience altogether that one may have during travel to Ecuador. Most likely, it is a beverage that you haven’t experienced before, far from the sweet, hot chocolate you know from home. It is thick, but not sweet. Flavored perhaps with chili and cinnamon, the syrupy liquid hits your taste buds subtly but thoroughly, adding to the beverage’s warmth. Purists sip it from a tiny cup, a bit bigger than a thimble, a drink that at first glance might appear too rich, but isn’t once you taste it. If you are more a latte than an espresso type, chocolate con leche may be more to your liking. Either way, Ecuadorian hot chocolate is a flavorful, memorable drink that bursts with flavor because nothing has been added to the beans to dilute the Arriba, only to enhance it. The beverage’s heft makes it as satisfying as a snack.
Whether you arrive in Quito for Ecuador tours of the Andes, to head off to an Ecuador Amazon adventure vacation or to a Galapagos Islands cruise, you will want to put savoring chocolate on the list of must-have experiences during your travel to Ecuador. One place to sample Ecuador chocolate is the Kallari chocolate café in the downtown La Mariscal neighborhood during your Quito tours. To drink hot chocolate during your Ecuador tours helps you to understand how civilizations lived in the centuries before chocolate bars were invented. It is a drink that evokes reverence. You will be glad you chose to travel to Ecuador. You’ll want to come again.
For more details about Southern Explorations’ many Ecuador tours including our travel to the Amazon with stays in a variety of Amazon Rainforest locations, our multitude of Galapagos Islands tours, some land-based and many different cruise itineraries, please review our Ecuador trip descriptions.