Harvesting cocoa beans and herbs from his backyard garden, transforming them into delicious chocolate bars, along with zesty tea bags, Craig Paul, a 35-year-old, is one of the self-taught agro-processors, whose products have hit the local market.
Paul is the son of Kenneth Paul, a well-known farmer from the farming community of Carriere, and the mastermind behind the brand Taste D Spice, also located in the community. The company’s vision is to permit local, regional, and international markets to be acquainted with beautiful, healthful, and tasteful agro-resources and by products i.e., tea bags and chocolates.
“Our main resource in Grenada is agriculture; we have good soil, crops, and food. We also have a lot of raw material, that we can add value to, that is why I stopped selling the cocoa from our fields and started using them to produce chocolate,” he explained.
Meet Agro- Processor Craig Paul although having a demanding career as an educator, Craig has invested considerable time into research and development that is contributing to the success of his Taste D Spice Brand. At the heart of this job is the leveraging of essential production skills, and operation of equipment to obtain the best quality final product, i.e., teabags from traditional herbs and five varieties of chocolate.
He said, “It is incredibly careful work, you must know what you are doing, you must be hygienic, as you are dealing with food. I had to study how to process teabags and chocolate; I had to read a lot and even associate myself with people locally in the industry.”
Craig’s products can be found at the local supermarkets – Real Value, Foodland, Food Fair, Marketing and National Importing Board ( MNIB), Alexis Food Stores, SOG Stores, Renwick & Thompson, and House of Chocolate.
His aspirations for Taste D Spice- is to have its own home; a factory location, preferably in St. Andrew, that can also serve as an agro-tourism enterprise, increase production, provide employment, and contribute to the development of the rural economy.
Currently Craig produces five flavors of chocolate including Ginger, Chocolate, Cashew, Mango along with blended herbal teas.
