With over forty awards under their belt, the Tobago Cocoa Estate Limited recently gained another. At the International Chocolate Awards 2025 held in Italy, their Sea Salt Buccoo Reef chocolate emerged as one of the winners, taking home silver.
“This is our award winner Seasalt Buccoo Reef that won the World Gold Silver 2025”
Managing Director Duane Dove, in a virtual interview, said the International Chocolate Awards are a preferred competition as it has a wider scope. He also explained the judging criteria in the European category.
“They only recognise what we call craft bean to bar chocolates. They have traceability, transparency, no fake ingredients your sourcing of the raw material cannot be associated with any child slavery . So they only recognise real chocolate.”
Nine other chocolates received silver in this annual competition.
“So we won the silver in the European finals and then we automatically advanced to the World Finals where everybody who has won in their separate areas comes together and this is where we were awarded World Silver.”
Mr. Dove said Tobago Cocoa Estate is tremendously proud of this achievement as it places Tobago on the map.
“We are branding Tobago. Our brand is Tobago that is what you see when you go in the shops and stuff like that. So having an award like this you get a nice little sticker that you put on the label and that makes your product more visible out in the shops.”
This award has also attracted new customers and excited the staff.
“We already got people calling and asking who are interested, new customers who have seen and heard about what we’re doing. So they are interested. So obviously it promotes the brand. When people come to Tobago on holiday or whatever they say I heard about this Estate and you won this we have to go there because at the Estate we do tours.”
It’s noteworthy that they have been able to produce world-class chocolates amid the effects of climate change. Though expensive, Mr. Dove said they have adapted.
“We have to be doing stuff like more regular pruning work. The pruning is you’re airing out the trees, the fields to allow airflows. That certainly helps with combating the disease. However, we also have the problem that if it is too rainy and wet we cannot dry our cocoa beans as we would like to because we dry cocoa in the sun. The best way, we are organic. So we are getting licks in the fields and licks when it comes to drying beans. So it is becoming more expensive because we have to put more man hours.”
While producing award-winning chocolate, Mr. Dove has been executing other projects. He recently launched his Chocolate Book in August.
“It is in Scandinavian but we have the English version coming for Christmas and it is like a handbook. It has recipes but it really focuses on the work behind the bars from the fields all the way to the finished product”.
The Tobago Cocoa Estate will be celebrating another milestone in 2026—20 years of existence.
“All of our products will have the 2020 year anniversary year label. This is our Laura which also won World Gold back in 2017. A nice cute little box. We also have a new beer coming. We did a pilot project with a micro-brewery in Croatia. These guys are like top of the line and we have a new one coming out. This is our milk stout and it is infused with our cocoa nibs – the crushed cocoa beans. So they put the beans in and allow it to cure with the beer and you bottle it.”
With eyes on the future, Mr. Dove highlighted that there is no end in the work being done at the Tobago Cocoa Estate.
“We don’t stop there. We started planting again this year. We have our ten thousand trees cocoa project. It will take us about four to five years to do it but we have already planted about a thousand new trees and next year we will continue. So we are planting also for the future.”