Cocoa Sector Articles
For the Cocoa Research Centre, The UWI.
2019. TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Team:
Writers: Ariana Herbert, Rhonda Chan Soo, Jonathan Stone
Photographer: Arnaldo James
Brasso Seco, A Community and Cooperative Approach to Cocoa
By RHONDA CHAN SOO
The road to Brasso Seco seems carefully etched along the mountainside. Ferns line rock walls, glimpses through towering trees and sprawling tropical leaves all render me breathless. Along the way, we have found ourselves in the midst of the forest and it is by far the most beautiful route I have taken in Trinidad. The face of the mountain opens up unexpectedly to reveal a stunning vista. The whole valley feels alive, pulsating with the energy of green, rippling out into a wave of rolling hills, and dissipating into the Caribbean Sea.
A Legacy and Labour of Love, La Carlota Estate and Kairi Chocolate Company
By ARIANA HERBERT
“The passion with which people maintained their estates… It was something that was precious, something alive.” Deosaran shares as his wife Cherie-Ann and I eat scotch bonnet peppered curry dahl, rice and goat for lunch. My time with them is spiced with citrus infused chocolate bars, bustling adventures and the legacy of the 75-acre estate. During 2 robust years, the couple built the Kairi Chocolate Company and revitalized the La Carlota Estate, found off the foothills of Mount Tamana and the Cunapo River in Trinidad and Tobago’s Central Range.
San Juan Estate – Modernizing Trinidad’s Cocoa Through Innovation and Excellence
By JONATHAN STONE
According to chocolate afficionados, certain cocoa estates are akin to sacred ground as their beans offer exceptional floral, fruity or woody tones seldom found together in other locales. In addition, their rich histories mean that sampling chocolates from such estates imbue tasters with a sense that they are participating in a piece of history themselves, becoming part of the story of such a place. San Juan estate in Gran Couva, Central Trinidad is one such estate.
Stollmeyer Estate: Keeping Pace With Cocoa Through the Generations
By RHONDA CHAN SOO
For many Trinbagonians, the name Stollmeyer may be associated with its most visible artefact, a curiously ostentatious castle. Commissioned by Charles Fourier Stollmeyer and finished in 1904, Stollmeyer’s Castle (originally “Killarney”) is the first of the country’s “Magnificent Seven” to be completed and lived in. These majestic buildings line the Queen’s Park Savannah, a large recreational park in the center of the capital city that lays claim to being one of the largest traffic circles in the world. For others, the name Stollmeyer is inextricably linked to coconut water…
Of Cocoa, Destiny and Family, The Ortinola Great House
By ARIANA HERBERT
“I was horse crazy,” Nikita laughs. As a child, Nikita Nath adored horses, but she completely and wholeheartedly adored chocolate. “I’d hide under the table with tins of cocoa powder,” she gleefully shares with me, “I’ve always been a chocoholic.” At first glance, the Nath Family’s story of the Ortinola Great House Estate appears to begin with ponies, a deep love for a daughter and a search for a farm. Yet, perhaps it begins far before that when Nikita had her first fated taste of cocoa…
Montserrat Cocoa Farmers Co-operative Society Limited (MCFCSL) – Preserving the Fine Flavours of Trinidad and Tobago
By JONATHAN STONE
In the beginning there were five farmers – Mr. Lee Sam, Mr. Caloo, Mr. Granger, Mr. Fullerton and Mr. De Verteil, who came together to establish the Montserrat Cocoa Farmers’ Co-operative in 2008. The five had a vision of a re-vitalized cocoa industry in their region of the Montserrat hills in Gran Couva – an exceptionally picturesque area of low-lying, densely forested hills where cacao beans had been planted ever since the late seventeenth century when Catalan Capuchin missionaries settled among the Amerindian peoples of Trinidad.