Sorry For The Delay

It has been my last week at school, so I have been out enjoying Napa and all of its wonders - as well as packing. I've done lots of yummy, foody things this week. This post will be about the awesome field trip my class took last week! We got to go on an exclusive tour of Guittard chocolate factory. We got to learn all about their history, how it is STILL a family company, which is a miracle in today's world. Ghirardelli hasn't been family owned in decades. Anywho, when you walk into the door of Guittard, the first thing you see is a really awesome Cocoa Tree. These only grow in equatorial regions, and need lots of warmth and humidity. Yet Guittard tried, years ago, to plant on in their office! We got really lucky because, for the first time ever, they actually have A REAL COCOA BEAN!

I'm still kind of new to blogspot, so I dont know how to rotate the picture, but there it is! It was really cool to see what we had been learning about and only seeing fake ones of. 

So after that, there was no photography allowed, and we got to go through the whole factory, from the sorting of whole beans, down to how they roast and flavor all their chocolates. We got to taste a lot, and we got to see the R&D lab. The funniest part of the trip to me was that the guide kept saying that CIA uses exclusively Guittard chocolate, which I have never even seen on our grounds. But oh well. 

 After the tour, we went over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was the first time for many members of my class. So we had to stop and be touristy for a moment.

After that we stopped at a yummy, old fashioned French bakery/cafe for lunch in Marin County called Emporio Rulli. I thought I had pictures of this place, but apparently they have temporarily been misplaced. It was really cool though, to walk into a famous bakery and know that you have made everything in their pastry case, and probably better.

Oh, how I will miss CIA for the next five months.