Courtesy, COCOBEL Chocolates Trinidad

COCOBEL CHOCOLATES are handcrafted by Isabel Brash, a self-taught local chocolate maker and chocolatier.  (Check out our pictures of Cocobel Chocolates and other chocolatiers from the region at the 2012 Caribbean Fine Cocoa Forum.)

The sweet part is that COCOBEL starts (and luckily ends) right here in Trinidad.  Trinitario cacao beans are sourced from a local cocoa estate and then processed by COCOBEL from bean to bar.

COCOBEL’s final products are a luxury collection of dark chocolate bars and chocolate confections that incorporate local fruits, nuts and spices:

• Bark – shards of chocolate sprinkled with crystallized ginger, toasted coconut & pineapple, or cranberries, apricots & almonds.
• Bonbons – infused with local fruits and spices like gingerbread spice, chai, espresso, ginger rum, rich dark sorrel, ponche de creme, honey passion fruit, cashew coconut, or mango pepper.
• Boxes – include multiple bonbons (from three pieces up to 25 pieces).

COCOBEL also makes an all natural cocoa powder from local chocolate that we like to use for baking.

Website/Email – Cocobel Website; Cocobel Facebook Page; cocobelchocolates@yahoo.com.

Retail Outlets - Purchase directly from Cocobel via email at cocobelchocolates@yahoo.com; Medulla Art Gallery (Woodbrook, Trinidad); Malabar Farms Gourmet Shop (Maraval, Trinidad); and AhPiece.com, a local online retailer of artisan products.

Trusted Reviews & Articles on COCOBEL CHOCOLATES:

• UWI Today said, “Open a box of Cocobel Chocolates and you face a delicious dilemma. Each hand-decorated morsel is such a work of art that it is as much a feast for the eyes as the palate.” [UWI Today, February 2012]
• The Trinidad Express has a feature article on Isabel Brash on October 30, 2011.
• The Jamaica Gleaner covered the 2011 Caribbean Fine Cocoa Conference & Chocolate Expo and featured COCOBEL Chocolates in a September 22nd article with a quote from Isabel Brash, “We have divine cocoa! You can only make good chocolate with good cocoa and I am blessed to come from a place that has fine cacao,” says Brash. “Our beans are sought after for their fruity and floral notes.” [Jamaica Gleaner, September 2011]
• COCOBEL’s chocolates were actually given as a gift to “all guests from the US delegation staying at the hotel for the Fifth Summit of the Americas [were] presented with gift packages of Cocobel chocolates.” [Trinidad Guardian, April 2009]
• Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Punch blog has an informative post about COCOBEL along with several great pictures.
• Essay by Isabel Brash here about COCOBEL Chocolates.