Chocolates for the connoisseurs

Trinidad and Tobago cultivates 11 varieties of Trinitario beans and is one of 17 countries that produces the highest quality cacao bean strains known as fine flavour cacao.

Other producers of fine flavour cacao beans include Ecuador, Grenada, Dominica, Belize, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.

Cacao production in TT has declined from 30,000 tonnes in the 1920s to less than 1,000 tonnes today and if we are serious about rehabilitating the cacao sector, there must be no further delay in increasing production since there is an increasing demand and a high price being paid for high-quality cacao beans across the world.

In 2014 the world production of cacao beans was 4.6 million tons with the Ivory Coast producing 1.5 million tons followed by Ghana with 836,000 tons and Indonesia, 777,000 tons.

However, only five percent of total world production of cacao beans is of the top quality fine flavour variety as produced in TT and used in the manufacture of gourmet chocolate products.

The leading chocolate manufacturing countries in the world, the US, Belgium, Switzerland, and the UK, do not grow cacao and the internationally popular brands are manufactured using mainly cheaper Forastero beans originating mainly from West African countries.

The sweeter something is, the more sugar it contains and the less cacao it has. Chocolate is not sweet.

Sugar is sweet. If it is sweet, it is not chocolate, it is candy. Milk chocolates contain less than 30 percent chocolate and few milk chocolates exceed 20 percent. White chocolate is an imposter since it does not contain cocoa powder.

Since the mid-1990s, a number of the smaller chocolate manufacturers have introduced products that contain 60 to 90 percent cocoa.

Some high-quality “dark chocolates” which contain more than 70 percent of cocoa include l’Artisan du Chocolat, Lindt, Taza, Vivani, Godiva, Poscha and Ghiradelli.

These are real chocolates and are more expensive than milk chocolates.

With an increasing demand for fine flavour cacao beans as produced in TT, chocolatiers from various parts of the world have been visiting TT to obtain first-hand information on the local products.

With the exclusion of “the middle man,” quality local beans can attract a price of US$5,000 a ton for the farmer. The lower quality beans sell for about US$2,000 a ton.

The Trinidad and Tobago Fine Cocoa Company, which was launched in August 2015, will produce liquid chocolate and cocoa liquor at its factory at la Gloria Estate in Centeno for export to Europe, where the company has a partnership with the UK’s l’Artisan du Chocolat, which will produce flavoured chocolates for sale in its shops worldwide.

It is not well known that there are a number of small chocolatiers in TT whose products, limited as they may be, are available from a few local retailers. Following are the names of some of our local producers of good quality chocolates, not candy, made from Trinitario fine flavour cacao: Brasso Seco Chocolate Company, Cacique Chocolates, Cocobel Chocolates, Exotic Caribbean Mountain Pride, Gina’s Chocolate Truffles, House of Arendel, House of Orlando Chocolate, JB Chocolates, Long’s Chocolate, The Lopinot Chocolates, Omarbeans Organic, Sun Eaters Organic, Tobago Cocoa Estate, Violetta Fine Chocolates, Soular Chocolate, Spirit of Chocolate, Tucker Vale Chocolate.

I have been told by connoisseurs that the flavour and quality of these local estate chocolates are excellent.

It is my wish that the Government gives every encouragement to this long overdue initiative to add value to our quality cacao beans and to encourage the resuscitation of our cacao-growing industry by providing the necessary guidance from agronomists and agricultural extension officers together with the required incentives.