Treats From the ‘Chocolate Islands’
by Kathleen Becker
Chocolate from São Tomé and Príncipe is acquiring a loyal following – and has even been called the best in the world. Cocoa, originally brought to the islands as a decorative plant from Brazil in the early nineteenth century, has long been the main crop of this former Portuguese colony. At one point, these tiny islands in the Gulf of Guinea were amongst the leading exporters of cocoa in the world, rivalling that of nearby British Gold Coast, or modern day Ghana. Today, cocoa is still the poverty-stricken islands' main cash crop, and travellers to the country will see evidence of it everywhere. Chunky cocoa pods in beautiful colours – purple, orange, yellow and red – sprout off the cocoa tree trunks sheltered by tall flame trees in bright orange bloom. At grand plantation houses, crumbling into romantic decay since independence in the mid-seventies, children crack open the pods to suck the sweet flesh, while adults rake the beans on drying racks in the tropical sun or stack the moist beans under the canopy of the dense rainforest. Who knows, you might even (as happened to me) encounter newlyweds who planned their honeymoon on the whim of an intriguing chocolate wrapper from São Tomé and Príncipe...