Cocoa & Culture: Sweet Stories from Trinidad to St. Augustine

Join Dr. Clarissa Carr and graduate researcher Anthea Grant of the University of Florida Historic Preservation Program for a fascinating journey into the cultural and historic legacy of chocolate in two richly layered places: Trinidad and Tobago and St. Augustine, Florida. Funded by the Forrest E. Mars, Jr. Chocolate History Research Grant, their projects highlight how cocoa has shaped landscapes, identities, and economies across time and place.

Anthea Grant, born and raised in Trinidad, will share her research into the island's cocoa traditions from colonial-era plantations to today’s cultural rituals like “Dancing the Cocoa.” Learn how oral histories and immersive digital storytelling are helping preserve the voices and stories of cocoa farmers, descendants of enslaved Africans, Indian indentured laborers, and Indigenous peoples.

Dr. Carr will then unwrap Sweet Beginnings: St. Augustine’s Chocolate Legacy, an exhibit that explores how chocolate-making in one of America’s oldest cities intersected with immigration, innovation, and nostalgia. This exhibit highlights archival discoveries, a 1641 shipwreck, and the stories of families who shaped the city’s sweet tooth.

You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how preservationists document and share chocolate’s global story through interviews, maps, 360-degree video, and digital exhibits.