Everything to Know About Jamaican Chocolate

When you think of luxury chocolate, think Jamaica! Jamaica is a tiny dot on the map yet most people around the world have heard of this country. This may be due to our reggae and dancehall music, athletic prowess, infectious culture and accent, our food, rum and Blue Mountain coffee. However, a lesser known fact is that Jamaica produces some of the world’s best chocolate bars! Jamaica is one of 17 countries recognized as producers of fine or flavoured cocoa by the International Cocoa Organization, and only one of 8 countries to do so exclusively. The flavours of fine cocoa beans range from fruity and floral to herbal, woody, nut and caramel notes. Cocoa trees yield approximately 20-30 pods per year, with each of the pods containing only 30-40 beans. It takes 400 beans to make one pound of chocolate, which explains why Jamaican chocolate bars may fetch high prices comparatively.

Did you know that the difference between cacao and cocoa is the temperature at which the dried, fermented beans are processed? Cacao refers to the unroasted or lightly roasted bean which allows it to retain more antioxidants, while cocoa is roasted at higher temperatures. This damages its nutrients but makes it taste sweeter.

Source: Healthline

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The History of Chocolate in Jamaica

Cocoa was first domesticated along the Yucatán peninsula where it was regarded as “food of the gods.” For most of its 4,000-year history, it was consumed as a bitter invigorating beverage for its mood-enhancing and aphrodisiac properties, rather than as a sweet edible treat. Chocolate was reserved for warriors, priests and nobles at religious ceremonies and the Mayans worshipped a god of cacao. In the 1500s, Spanish conquistadors sought precious metals in Mexico, but returned instead with chocolate. It was seen as a delectable symbol of luxury, wealth and power, but only Spanish aristocracy could afford the expensive commodity. Thus, the Spanish set up cocoa plantations throughout Mexico and the Caribbean, including Jamaica, because they recognized cocoa for its economic value as ‘liquid gold’.

Its popularity eventually spread through Europe which fueled the Caribbean’s cocoa and sugar industry to satiate the European appetite for chocolate. African slaves were imported to work on the plantations and maintain the production of chocolate after Spanish diseases, cruelty and overwork decimated the Amerindian population. When England took ownership of Jamaica in 1655, they continued cocoa production in Jamaica.

In 1850, a severe import duty imposed in England discouraged the growing of the crop except for local use. Discouraged by the fall in price and diminishing yields, many farmers abandoned their farms or switched to other crops. One century later, the Jamaican government began centralizing the cocoa industry with its launch of the Cocoa Industry Board in 1957. The core function of the Cocoa Industry Board was the marketing of Jamaica’s fine and flavoured cocoa internationally, which involved promoting the growing of cocoa, providing technical support to farmers, purchasing and processing wet cocoa beans and selling dried fermented beans.

Did you know that chocolate milk was invented in Jamaica?

Between 1957 and 1962 the Board established four fermenteries to serve all cocoa growing areas and the Board became the sole purchasing agent for cocoa. Processing took place at two strategically located fermenteries located at Morgan’s Valley in Clarendon, and Richmond in St. Mary. They provided warehousing and sorting/packaging facilities for export. The highest production periods for cocoa took place in the late 1980’s to the mid 1990’s, during which exports measured approximately 2,000 metric tonnes annually. This period also coincided with an estimated 12,000 farmers, along with strong outside support, particularly from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). However on the turn of the century, the Government of Jamaica took a policy decision to exit the commercial operation of the Cocoa Sector and continues only with its regulatory function through the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA) Act which came into effect on January 1, 2018.

Currently Jamaica exports 500 metric tonnes of cocoa per year, earning some $225 million, with approximately 6000 registered farmers, most of whom are small farmers and based throughout Portland, St. Mary, Clarendon and St. Catherine. We export 98 percent of our cocoa to Europe, Japan and the USA. The industry’s biggest threats are regional and foreign competition, hurricanes, droughts and of course, pests. The major diseases currently affecting cocoa in Jamaica are the Black Pod disease and the Frosty Pod Rot disease. A project to eliminate the Frosty Pod Rot disease is now being undertaken, spearheaded by the Regional Agricultural Development Agency (RADA).

We are living in exciting times. Currently, Jamaica’s tourism is undergoing transformation with an emphasis being placed on food festivals! Soon to join the list will be a Jamaican Chocolate Festival, as announced by Minister Edmund Bartlett at the 2020 rum festival. Jamaica is looking to set up a modern, viable cocoa industry that will flourish and enhance rural livelihoods. Jamaican artisan chocolate is an ever-expanding industry with a large proportion of female entrepreneurs.

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Related: Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Festival

Jamaican Chocolate

I don’t proclaim to be a chocolate connoisseur but I do love chocolate. As of 2023, I have tried four of the six local chocolates and chocolatiers listed below and I love them all! I won’t state a favourite publicly, but do give them all a try and share your favourites with me. A reader shared Cloud 9 Chocolates with me (one of the two local chocolates I’ve never tried) but it seems they may have gone out of business? Their website has been down for at least one year, and they are non-existent on social media. If anyone knows of their whereabouts, please enlighten me. Anyway, look out for these lovely Jamaican chocolates in most major supermarkets and pharmacies islandwide.

1. Likkle More Chocolate

2. One One Cacao

3. Pure Chocolate Jamaica

4. Mount Pleasant Chocolatiers

5. Chocollor

6. Cloud 9 Chocolate

Chocolate Tours in Jamaica

If trying Jamaican chocolates from the nearest supermarket or pharmacy isn’t enough for you, feel free to try a chocolate tour! Currently, both One One Cacao and Pure Chocolate Jamaica offer tours. I still have these tours on my bucket list, and will eventually cross them off just as how I have crossed off this Blue mountain coffee tour and three Jamaican rum tours over the years.

Wrap Up

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Subscribe to keep up with new articles which publish this and every Friday.

‘Til next time.

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Read next: The Jamaica Rum Festival

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