76 April 2015 - Business View Caribbean
Old-School Chocolate for
a New Generation
Exotic Caribbean Mountain Pride bringing Trinidadian tradition to new frontiers
The business that now exists as Exotic Caribbean
Mountain Pride sprang from a cocoa estate in Trini-
dad and Tobago, when the family running the property
were seeking a way to generate additional income out-
side of what was coming in via sale of the estate’s raw
materials – cocoa beans.
The family began by reaching back into the estate’s
history to restart a chocolate-making tradition that had
begun among the estate’s slave labor population. The
chocolate made by the slaves had never been sold as
a commercial product and it was no longer available in
the local market.
But once it began selling in 2007, Astrida Saunders,
who co-owns the estate with her brothers, knew they
were on to something big.
“There were not many people locally that were doing
anything with cocoa beans at that time,” she said.
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