Sweet Dreams

Resorts and spas are increasingly incorporating chocolate and cacao into their treatments

- STEPHANIE VERMILLION

IF YOU have a sweet tooth, you shouldn't feel any guilt enjoying your beloved chocolate bars. Cacao beans are full of iron, potassium and magnesium—not to mention a host of antioxidant and skin-boosting benefits. That's why spas and skincare brands around the world now use cacao and cocoa (processed cacao beans) to sweeten the self-care experience. I indulged in this treat myself in one of Africa's most historic, and now most sustainable, chocolate hubs: Príncipe.

A century ago, São Tomé and Príncipe, a twin-island nation off the coast of Central Africa, was the world's largest chocolate producer. However, that title came with a somber history. In the late 1400s, Portugal colonized the Gulf of Guinea islands. Centuries later, they imported cacao trees from Brazil, and ferried over enslaved people from West Africa to create a new industry. The plants thrived and cacao boomed thanks to the region's volcanic soil.