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Sweet like chocolate: researching in the shade of a cacao tree

Naailah Ali aims to support cacao farmers in the West Indies by improving the bean-fermentation process.
By
  1. Rachel Brazil

    1. Rachel Brazil is a freelance science writer based in London, UK.

Naailah Ali tends inspects a cocoa pod on a tree in Trinidad.

Naailah Ali is a food technologist at the University of the West Indies’ Cocoa Research Centre in St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Credit: Kelly-Ann Bobb for Nature

“The seven-year-old cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) that I’m inspecting in this photo is part of the Model Cocoa Orchard established by the University of the West Indies’ Cocoa Research Centre (CRC), where I work as a food-technology researcher. My colleagues and I use this 1,500-tree orchard in Valsayn, a town in the north of the island of Trinidad, to better understand cocoa production.

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Nature 645, 814 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02923-x

This Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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