Trinidad Cocoa Farmers Association

Javed Omardeen will always be loved, never forgotten and forever missed.
Our heartfelt condolence goes out to the family on the sad passing of Javed.
A fellow farmer, Chocolate maker, vendor, nature lover and the list goes on.
Him and his family put Trinidad and Tobago Cocoa among the best in the world. With hard work dedication and a smile on his face he made nature his home.
"I cry for the legacy this loved one leaves, for the ways of the world has been made different by his presence, for the memories that become both more beautiful and more painful on this side of death. And I pray that the work You have accomplished in this remarkable life will grow deeper, wider, and stronger in the days to come, uninhibited by a weak opponent like death". Gregory Cole
Rest easy Javed.

T&T Chocolate Train Road Show is an inclusive educational, cultural, historical, entertaining and practical experience offering. A unique approach to getting farmers, youths, chocolatiers and the general public aware of the diversity of Cocoa. The Call is real and they are answering in an enthusiastic way. Kudos!

Whoo...Big congratulations to our Trinidad and Tobago winners
Doolarie Ramdath, Shankar Teelucksingh and Stephanie Omardeen ‼

📣And finally, we are thrilled to reveal the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners of the 2023 Edition of the Cacao of Excellence Awards for the Central America and the Caribbean region!! 🎉👏🏼
And the Awards go to...⤵

Gold
• Costa Rica 🏅 Chocolatera del Volcán
• El Salvador 🏅 Rafael Moisés Ochoa Pinto
• Jamaica 🏅Pure Chocolate Jamaica & Body Estate
• Martinique 🏅 Valcaco - Jean Michel Marie

Silver
• Guatemala 🥈 Itzam Kakaw / Cacao Verapaz S.A.
• Puerto Rico 🥈 Hacienda Terruño JS
• Trinidad and Tobago 🥈 Doolarie Ramdath
• Trinidad and Tobago 🥈 Shankar Teelucksingh
• Trinidad and Tobago 🥈 Stephanie Omardeen

Bronze
• El Salvador 🥉 Cristiani Burkard S.A. de C.V. – Finca Las Vegas
• Guatemala 🥉 Kampura S.A.
• Mexico 🥉 Juan Carlos Velázquez Bautista
• Nicaragua 🥉Sajonia Estate Coffee S.A
• Puerto Rico 🥉 David Valentín

We send a warm congratulations to all the producers of excellence who participated in the 2023 Edition of the Cacao of Excellence Awards !!! 👏🏼👏🏼 🏆🎉 More photos from the event to come!!!

Today Students of UTT, the Youth Agricultural Homestead Program visited Tamana Mountain Chocolate facility, where they given a hands-on approach to Grafting Cocoa Plants and more.

Excitement in the Cocoa Sector in Trinidad and Tobago today.
3 of our Cocoa Farmers made it to the Top 50 beans in the World according to the Cacao of Excellence Team, the entity that provides global recognition to producers of superior quality cacao and celebrates the diversity of flavors from different producing cacao countries. 222 entries from 52 countries entered this competition.

At a traditional Cocoa Estate you will see cocoa and coffee trees side by side. Now, they mostly specialize by entire estates with Cocoa or Coffee. Pod picking for cocoa is from November to April and coffee cherry picking is from December to March. So the crops entwine with each other. It is still a fantastic way to utilize your space.

Ahhhhhh. Something to look forward to 😎

All is Invited‼️ ☎️ 461-5134/759-6639

Remember Oshun Matthew, owner of Mid Island Cocoa Fermentors Limited. 🗣 Congratulations are in order. Out of the three estate cocoa beans he fermented and dried, two estates, Tamana Hill Boys and San Antonio's Estate made it into the top 20 of the National Cocoa Awards 2023 today. With San Antonio's Estate beans making it to the top 5 and sent to Paris, France to be entered into, for the Cacao of Excellence Awards Competition, which will be announced later in the year. Today Oshun received his Certificate for fermenting said beans. It was an auspicious moment for this young man whose hard work brought rewards. Again kudos 🙌

Today we feature the youngest Cocoa Fermentor, Oshun Matthew, owner of Mid Island Cocoa Fermentors Limited. Involved in the Cocoa industry since 2020 fermenting beans. With mentors like the Matthews, Sarah Bharath and Siddiqa Ragbirsingh. At 19 years old he established his own company. Last December 2022, he was approached by two small estates and one large estate to ferment their beans for the upcoming 2023 National Cocoa Awards with unfavorable weather conditions he did his job for these clients and now they are awaiting results from the competition. We wish them all the best. A man of few words with actions of a regular teenager and very hard working we pay homage to you.

A Tamana cocoa Farmer is hoping for sweet success in his efforts to revive the waning sector.

https://www.cnc3.co.tt/cocoa-farmer-seeking-to-revive-cocoa-sector/

Level up your next tasting journey!

Our Flavour Wheel contains 45 core and complementary flavour attributes that can help you understand and better describe the chocolate you are tasting and/or the flavour potential of your beans!

Better yet, compliment this visual tool with our Glossary of Terms for Cocoa Bean Flavour Evaluation as Liquor and Chocolate, and score the intensity level of each attribute you perceive.

With each Cocoa of Excellence Edition, a carefully selected jury of international sensory evaluation experts uses these powerful tools as part of their evaluation of the 50 Best bean samples that were processed into dark chocolate.

While the chocolate recipe for each sample is exactly the same - without added flavours - all 50 chocolates display a diversity of flavours because of one key feature – the cocoa beans.

Before even arriving to this chocolate sensory evaluation stage, the selected Best 50 samples along with a much larger pool of accepted samples submitted had been processed into liquor and blindly evaluated by our Technical Committee members, using these same sensory analysis tools.

Download the tools on our website and explore your sensory evaluation skills. Happy tasting! 🌰🪵🍊🍍😊

https://www.cocoaofexcellence.org/info-resources-1

This Cocoa Season has been one of low production. The rainy weather has contributed to Black Pod disease which is a fungus that affects the entire plant and turns the cocoa pod black.
Having Cocoa plants in a covered area is not practical but look at this plant in a Greenhouse. The pod has a lighter color, no moss and thriving beautifully. Free from the pest of Parrots, Squirrels, Woodpeckers and Now Monkeys as beautiful as they are...