Lo­cal choco­latiers, chefs and ar­ti­sans will show­case their of­fer­ings at the Green Mar­ket in San­ta Cruz dur­ing the an­nu­al choco­late fes­ti­val this Sat­ur­day, which will high­light T&T’s Trini­tario ca­cao.

Michael Ball­mann, busi­ness de­vel­op­ment man­ag­er of the T&T Fine Co­coa Com­pa­ny (TTFCC) said choco­latiers and chefs con­sid­er Trini­tario the “most su­pe­ri­or va­ri­ety of ca­cao” for its fine flavour notes.

In­ter­na­tion­al­ly, he added, it is of­ten used as a blend with oth­er va­ri­eties of ca­cao which are more abun­dant and more eco­nom­i­cal to pur­chase, to in­ten­si­fy the choco­latey notes of a dessert or pas­try.

Grenada Chocolate Fest—cocoa beans

Trini­tario ca­cao is renowned across the world for its strong, in­tense flavour pro­file.  

“We are ex­cit­ed to rein­tro­duce our­selves to the San­ta Cruz mar­ket and will use the mar­ket to test out some of our prod­ucts we have com­ing out soon like our ve­g­an-friend­ly oat milk choco­late, a 58 per cent sug­ar free dark choco­late and choco­late cov­ered quinoa.

“These are part of a new health range that we will be launch­ing mid-Oc­to­ber in time for Christ­mas. We will al­so be of­fer­ing sam­ples and show­cas­ing our ex­ist­ing sig­na­ture prod­ucts, in­clud­ing our choco­late pineap­ple chow and scor­pi­on pep­per drink­ing choco­late,” Ball­mann said.

Grenada Chocolate Fest – Grenada Rum

The Green Mar­ket San­ta Cruz will al­so wel­come for the first time, the Grena­da Choco­late Fest and True Blue Bay Re­sort Grena­da.

Mag­dale­na Field­en, founder and or­gan­is­er of Grena­da Choco­late Fest said, “We want to let Tri­nis know about the Grena­da Choco­late and Rum Fest, 2023. It will be our tenth edi­tion and we plan to make it spe­cial by al­so cel­e­brat­ing our rum that goes quite well with choco­late.”

Field­en said there’s al­so the pos­si­bil­i­ty of hav­ing a mi­ni trade show fo­rum invit­ing re­gion­al co­coa pro­duc­ers and choco­latiers as the Caribbean has many coun­tries pro­duc­ing fine co­coa.

She added Grena­da’s co­coa is “one of the strongest and rich­est co­coas in the world par­tial­ly due to its su­per rich vol­canic soil and the hot sun.”

“The co­coa in Grena­da is char­ac­ter­is­tic of mak­ing rich fruity choco­lates, with earthy notes of red fruits and cit­rus with hints of to­bac­co,” Field­en added.