FOUNDER of Bellevue Exotic Chocolate Makesi Paul does not see himself as a serial entrepreneur, though he has dipped his hands into many business ventures.
During the first covid19 lockdown in 2020, the chocolate-maker failed his way to making a product of which he is proud – a series of failures he can laugh about now.
After months of burning chocolate, adding too much salt to the coconut sea salt flavour, water and chocolate not mixing and random mishaps happening overnight, Paul has finally reached a point where he can say, "This is my first official business."
A civil/structural engineer, who studied at Johns Hopkins University after receiving a national open scholarship, he said, "What wrapped me into bringing this project home was the community of local farmers and agriculture enthusiasts."
Paul was inspired by local farmers and how they did what they did well, in novel and innovative ways.
Asked why he chose the business of chocolate, Paul said, "We have the best. TT is known for its cocoa, and it is important to help spread it throughout the world." Historically, TT had been known internationally to have some of the best chocolate there is – but the local chocolate industry, which had great potential, fell on the back burner as natural gas gained prominence as the country's main export.
But given recent prices and diminishing reserves, more conversation on diversifying the economy had brought TT full circle – agriculture, especially local chocolate, now being on the tip of the tongue as a lucrative industry.
Paul said the nudge also had to do with a friend of his owning a cocoa farm in Grenada, which he visited and gained experience in cocoa farming, fortifying his love for chocolate.
Paul, who did a week-long, immersive course in the art of chocolate-making at the Cocoa Research Centre (CRC) at UWI, St Augustine, said chocolate represents an economic opportunity for TT.
[caption id="attachment_892905" align="alignnone" width="768"] Bellevue Exotic Chocolate founder Makesi Paul -[/caption]
"At that centre we have some of the best chocolate research in the world, I believe. There is something called the cocoa bank, where there are strains of chocolate from around the world, and where we can genetically engineer them to withstand diseases and graft them for flavouring. TT is well poised within the international chocolate space."Paul said a prophet is not without honour except in his own country, comparing that principle to the chocolate from TT – the people of TT don't praise the quality of the country's chocolate.
He said opportunity exists for entrepreneurship in the industry, given the availability of government grants for businesses in agriculture.
After the course at UWI, he invested in equipment and a space, which he found in Macoya, to set up the business for production.
The slogan of the company – "This is what chocolate can do" – speaks to the exotic flavours of the product, which Paul said say much about organic cocoa from TT.
He said unlike cocoa from many parts of the
