Chocolate Guru Sweet Talks Sixth Form Pupils
Sixth Form pupils and staff at King Edward’s Witley were in for a real treat last Friday 10th October, when cocoa farmer and chocolate guru Duane Dove visited the School. Duane delighted pupils and staff speaking about his entrepreneurial journey to set up the first and only single estate chocolate created from 100% Tobagonian grown cocoa beans. Pupils were able to see real cocoa pods opened in the traditional way by machete, taste fresh cocoa beans and learn the whole bean to bar process of chocolate making.
Duane Dove is a Tobagonian born Sommelier with a passion for chocolate, whose quest to find the perfect accompaniment to complement his rum and wine tastings led him to discovering that chocolate and rum represented the ultimate combination. Armed with this knowledge, he set out on a journey to position Tobago once again as one of the big five cocoa producers, growing and supplying the world with the finest chocolates using cocoa from Tobago termed ‘Tobago’s Black Gold’. His vision led him to establishing Tobago’s first ever Single Estate Chocolate from scratch, starting with clearing a plot of land and planting cocoa trees in 2004. After five years and over 56,000 man-hours, Duane Dove made history by launching the first chocolate bar made from 100% Tobagonian grown cocoa beans.
In addition to hearing the fascinating story detailing the challenges faced and overcome to bring the award winning Tobago Estate Chocolate to market (the chocolate has just been acknowledged as a 3 star product in the prestigious Great Taste Awards 2014, the highest accolade awarded by the London Guild of Fine Foods), pupils and staff also tasted five different chocolates from around the world including Duane Dove’s very own chocolate made just last month from the recent harvest. Sixth Form pupil Claudia commented, “I found it inspiring as I do Business Studies as a subject. He was very interactive with us, it was really fun and was a whole new tasty experience!”