All activities / Culinary / Cooking / Sao Tome
Culinary / Cooking in Sao Tome
The larger of the two islands of the equatorial republic of Sao Tome and Principe, off the coast of Central Africa. Rainforest-clad volcanic peaks drop to cocoa estates, black-sand coves and a small colonial-era capital on a natural harbour, ringed by warm, clear Atlantic water that holds reefs, nesting turtles and passing whales.
Why here
Sao Tome was once the largest cocoa producer on earth, and it is now one of the best places in the world to follow chocolate from the tree to the bar in a single afternoon. The island grows some of the most sought-after fine-flavour cocoa anywhere, and two makers have built their reputations on it. In the capital, Claudio Corallo runs tastings that walk you through fermentation, roasting and conching and end with pure chocolate of 73 to 100 percent that tastes nothing like a supermarket bar. On the western coast, Diogo Vaz opens its plantation for a walk among the cocoa trees before a tasting of vintage-dated bars at its estate cabin, and keeps a stylish chocolateria in town. Both are small, hands-on and run by the people who make the chocolate, so you learn how origin, fermentation and roast decide the flavour. For anyone who cares about where food comes from, this is chocolate at the source.
Best months
The tastings and plantation tours run year-round; cocoa is harvested across much of the year in the island's humid equatorial climate. Claudio Corallo holds guided factory tastings on set afternoons several days a week in the capital, with tickets sold shortly before each session, so check the current schedule. Diogo Vaz runs plantation visits by arrangement and its town chocolateria opens through the week. The main rains fall from March to May and can make plantation trails muddy; the drier gravana from June to September is the most comfortable time to walk the estates.
Getting there & around
Claudio Corallo's tasting room is in the capital, Sao Tome, an easy walk or taxi from the city hotels; sessions are held on set afternoons, so plan around the published times. Diogo Vaz's plantation, Roca Diogo Vaz, is on the north-west coast about an hour and a half from town by car, best combined with a swim at a nearby beach, while its chocolateria is central. Book the plantation tour ahead. Bring cash in the local dobra or euros. The chocolate travels well and both makers sell bars to take home.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Claudio Corallo
OutfitterClaudio Corallo is the Sao Tome chocolate house founded by the Italian agronomist of the same name, born in 1951, who has grown cocoa and coffee in Central Africa for more than forty years and was among the first makers anywhere to grow his own beans and carry them all the way to the bar. The cocoa comes from his Terreiro Velho plantation on Principe and is worked into 73 to 100 percent chocolate at a small factory in the capital, where guided tastings run several afternoons a week.
Diogo Vaz
OutfitterDiogo Vaz is a tree-to-bar chocolate maker whose cocoa is grown on the Roca Diogo Vaz plantation on the western coast of Sao Tome and turned into vintage-dated single-origin bars at the company's own factory. It opened a factory and a stylish chocolateria in the capital in 2018, where visitors taste chocolate, coffee and gelato, and it runs guided tours of the plantation itself, explored on foot or by bicycle along easy trails before lunch at the estate's cabin restaurant.