Monday afternoon, I had time to visit the Valor Chocolate Factory and Museum. Chocolate has been been made in Villajoyosa since the 1700s. The cocoa beans come from Africa and South America and were made into chocolate by many companies in small family operations - more than 30 such operations existed at one time. As this became an industry, in 1881 the Valor company was founded - it continues to be a family operated company today, more than 140 years later. There are now only two other chocolate factories in Villajoyosa, both founded in the decade after Valor. Outside the factory, there is a tour gathering area. I took a few photos while waiting for the tour to begin at 4:00.
The tour began in a room connected to the main factory. After a brief introduction by the tour guide, there was a recorded talk telling us about the long world history of chocolate, with different exhibits lit up as they were talked about.
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| The Sun Stone (described below) |
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| The Sun Stone is several photos above this one. |
Then we went into a second room for a 15 minute video. And then we went to another building which had much information about chocolate production in Villajoyosa and at Valor, with some authentic machinery and displays from the early years.
We then went back into the main factory and were taken to the observation deck on the second floor. The factory operation was separated from us by glass and we were not allowed to take photos here. We could see the packaging process, all of which was mostly automated. We could not see where the chocolate was made nor where the chocolate products were made. They had samples for us as we entered the store, where we had an opportunity to shop. I bought several items, including two packages of individually wrapped candies that I could share with the other participants at Estacion Inglesa.
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