A Different Kind of Date Night in Puerto Viejo

There are plenty of reasons to go out for the evening in Puerto Viejo.

Sometimes it's because you don't feel like cooking. Sometimes you want a cocktail and to watch the light change over the Caribbean. And sometimes it's because it's someone's birthday, you've made it through another year together, or you're on holiday and that seems like reason enough.

Recently we've noticed quite a few people choosing our chocolate pairings to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.

We didn't create them for that. It just seems to have happened.

And we rather like it.

Start while it's still light

Puerto Viejo evenings are better when you don't wait until dinner to go out.

Late afternoon is when the heat begins to lift, people start coming back from the beach and the light changes across the Caribbean.

At Cacao Huasi, you can come upstairs to the deck, order a cocktail or cacao drink and watch the afternoon disappear. From here we look across the water toward Playa Negra, the forested hills and, on particularly clear days, the mountains beyond.

If sunset is part of your plans, we've also put together a guide to where to watch the sunset in Puerto Viejo.

But you don't really need a plan. Arriving while it's still light is enough.

Chocolate, with something stronger

Our pairings started with a fairly simple idea: chocolate tastes different depending on what you drink with it.

Rum brings out one thing. Wine finds something else. Mezcal can completely change what you notice.

So we put them together.

The tastings are small and informal. You don't need to know anything about spirits, wine or chocolate, and nobody is going to test you afterwards.

You taste. You compare. You find combinations you love and occasionally one you really don't.

It turns out that's also quite a good thing to do with somebody you like.

Maybe that's why birthdays and anniversaries have started finding their way here.

Choose your evening

Rum & Chocolate feels naturally Caribbean. You taste different styles of rum alongside chocolates made here at Cacao Huasi and see what changes as you move between them.

Wine & Chocolate plays with fruit, acidity, tannin, sweetness and cacao. It's familiar enough to feel easy, but the combinations can still be surprising.

Mezcal & Chocolate goes somewhere else entirely: smoke, agave, fruit and cacao. It's the one I'd choose if part of the fun is trying something neither of you normally drinks.

If you're celebrating a birthday or anniversary, tell us when you book. Nothing elaborate—we just like knowing why you're here.

And then don't go anywhere

One of the nicest things about doing a pairing here is that it doesn't have to end when the tasting finishes.

Stay at the table. Order a cocktail. Have dinner.

Pairing guests receive 10% off dinner afterwards, and the restaurant is already around you, so there isn't another reservation to make or somewhere else you need to get to.

Our kitchen moves between Caribbean and Asian flavours, with jerk, ceviche, house-made focaccia, dishes to share, vegetarian and vegan choices, and desserts made with our chocolate.

There's often more going on around you as well. You might find live music, or explore the current art exhibition while you're here. Cacao Huasi is part restaurant, part chocolate workshop and part cultural space, so evenings have a habit of overlapping a little.

You can skip the pairing too

A date night doesn't have to be an Experience with a capital E.

Come for a cocktail around sunset and stay for dinner.

Our cocktail menu is a little like the rest of Cacao Huasi: Caribbean ingredients mixed with things we've become curious about.

There's a Caribbean Dark n Stormy made with ginger oleo saccharum, Ti Punch with rhum agricole and honey, an Old Fashioned with cacao bitters and corn whiskey, and drinks with passion fruit, starfruit, hibiscus, golden berry and mezcal.

Chocolate finds its way into the bar too, although not always in the way you'd expect.

What are you celebrating?

An anniversary is a good reason.

So is a birthday.

A honeymoon certainly qualifies.

But perhaps you've been travelling together for three weeks without killing each other. Or you've finally had a day without rain. Or you've spent all afternoon on the beach and neither of you wants the day to finish yet.

Puerto Viejo isn't very formal about these things.

Neither are we.

Come while it's still light. Taste something interesting. Have a cocktail. Stay for dinner.

That's enough of a celebration.