Beer, Wine & Love

[DaveM]

We're very excited about our first trip to Tobago. We leave at 11pm on Friday from Toronto and land in Trinidad on the Saturday, then it's a "puddle jumper" over to the island for a 8 days of sun, sand and diving. It is currently -17'C here in Kitchener and that's without the windchill! So, the 25-27'C weather in Tobago will be a welcomed shock.
We're staying at Charlottevilla (thanks to Stu from Caribstu) and renting a jeep from Sheppys (thanks to mytobago). I'm a little nervous about driving on the left hand side with right sided steering and a left handed stick shift - but hey, that's part of the adventure!
I love beer (and wine) and have a naive but very important question... what kind of beer will I find in Tobago?
Along the same topic - are there any breweries in Tobago? Is there a "national" beer?
How about wine? Any wineries or is all wine imported?
Any recommended beers and wines to try? If you reply, please list them all as I would like to try each and every one of them
Thanks,
Dave & Leta

[Ronald]

I would like to leave too, the winter in Sweden is so far very warm, but I prefer Caribbean temperature.

The National Beer of T&T is Carib, they also have Stag, I prefer Carib some Stag. The brewerie is situated in Trinidad, it comes to Tobago by ferry. They also have imported beers of course, Corona and different types from Europe.
For wine many say, go to the shop across Pennysavers in Canaan, I don´t know if there´s any local wine but maybe some can answer that question.
And except for beers T&T also have own rum of course.

Have a nice vacation
Ronald

[Anthony Townsend]

Hi,

La Tartaruga at Buccoo has a fantastic selection of Italian wine and the restaurant is good too. It just depends whether you want to eat Italian in Tobago! Personally, I think it's too good to miss. You can buy the wine without eating there. Check out the website http://www.latartarugatobago.com.

Anthony.

[DaveM]

Thank you for the feedback. We'll likely be drinking a little more now that it looks like it will be raining all next week. However, 27'C rain is better than -20'C snow!
Dave

[Chris Cross]

Thank you for the feedback. We'll likely be drinking a little more now that it looks like it will be raining all next week. However, 27'C rain is better than -20'C snow!
Dave

Well... we´ll see - next week we´ll be flying to arvidsjaur for the weekend

[Gisela Grell]

Hi Dave,

though I never had any experiences of driving on the "wrong" side of the road with the wheel on the "wrong" side of the car I had no problems to drive in Tobago. The very first time I took an automatic car but then get used to it very easily. The only problem you might have are the very big potholes on almost every street.
I prefer Carib like Ronald but advertisement says Stag is "a mans beer". Just try and find out by yourself.
There are a lot of different home made wines from almost any kind of fruit you can by from some locals. But be careful because you never know how much alcohol is inside

Enjoy your holidays - I whish I could join you

Cheers
Gisela

[DaveM]

We had a fantastic time in Tobago. Thanks to all the replies and to the mytobago.info website for all the great information. We loved the island and especially Charlotteville where we stayed. We had great diving in Speyside and the people of Tobago Dive Experience were professional and fun. Sheppy served us well by giving us his car when the one reserved did not come back in time. The only surprise were the wild turkeys, roosters and barking dogs in the early morning - but we had to get up early anyways to dive so they served as our daily alarm clock! Carib and Stag were great beers and we can't wait to get back to the island soon. Dave

[David Watkins]

DaveM,those wild turkeys were in fact Cocricos,which is the national bird of Tobago
David

[Brian Taylor]

national "pest" if you ask any tobagonian...