Wild Tobago

Theobroma cacao is the seed that saved her life said Sarah Bharath. Now she dedicates herself to teaching others what she learned. How Sarah Bharath became a cocoa consultant and what she has learned from seeds. This is her story as told to Pat Ganase.   I keep a lab/ office in my parents’ home in Central where I was born and grew up with two younger brothers. My Dad was a teacher and we went to primary school where he was teaching, Palmiste Government Primary just beyond Longdenville. My mother was the teacher at home. I moved to St Joseph’s Convent in St Joseph, then went to UWI St Augustine. For my undergrad, I studied Plant Sciences. Professor Julian Duncan and Dr Ralph Phelps made me fall in love with plant science; theirs was an era of true scholarship, one that required you to read for your degree. I am a voracious reader, cultivated by my parents.   The seeds that saved her life, photo by Ricardo Messon “A cow should graze where it’s tied” That’s what a profe...

  The cocoa industry over 100 years ago was focused on export of beans, mainly to Europe. Today, new entrepreneurs have restarted the Trinidad and Tobago cocoa industry at home with chocolate making. Pat Ganase reports on some 21 st century cocoa challenges.   Gillian Goddard’s home-based enterprise started with drying bananas and processing cocoa nibs ten years ago. She learned to make chocolate – from online demonstrations – and has extended her influence to empower individuals and communities. Today, Goddard and the Alliance of Rural Communities are dealing with a shortage of cocoa beans to keep their enterprises going, to ensure the health of communities and deal with the bigger issues of climate change.   “We called the meeting of cocoa and chocolate producers and associated institutions because our #1 issue is solidarity. We have a common shared experience. In the face of institutional silence, we need a community response,” said Goddard, fou...

Times of crisis are times of great opportunity, so the Chinese believe. What opportunities will the crisis of a shortage of cacao beans from Trinidad estates bring to a cadre of 21 st century   chocolate makers? Pat Ganase surveys the Trinidad and Tobago industry.     “It is heart-breaking,” says Isabel Brash, “that cocoa production has been declining drastically over the last couple years. It is difficult to plan chocolate production and take orders for even a month in advance. The biggest season is fast approaching; for Christmas we start chocolate production in September.”   Over the past decade, the architect turned chocolate entrepreneur has built her business at the Cocobel chocolate house on Fitt Street using beans bought mainly from the Rancho Quemado estate. She has also worked with beans from other estates – La Deseada in Santa Cruz, San Antonio and independent farmer Anand Narine – and enjoys telling the stories of the flav...