Photo : telegraph.co.uk
David “Mott Green” Friedman recently died an accidental death while building a catamaran to sail Grenada Chocolate to Caribbean Islands. He had already done well over sixty chocolate deliveries to Carriacou, twenty miles across a rough channel with strong currents, aboard his 13-foot Hobie Cat – adventurous stuff in a small boat. Wild sailing and fishing were his favorite leisure.
Mott dropped out of college, took up “squat” living in NYC, and ran soup kitchens. It was hard for his family to get mad because he was doing so much good. And it made him feel good. But he lost interest in American society and NYC winters are cold. He found Grenada, settled in, became a citizen.
Mott was Grenada Chocolate; Grenada Chocolate was Mott. He made and marketed chocolate, ate it, drank it, lived and breathed it – he literally lived in the chocolate factory, which he invented, equipped, reinvented, and expanded. He learned and practiced chocolate making from scratch and taught partners, workers, farmers, and others. Grenada Chocolate is now recognized among the world’s best. His sense of responsibility drove his total involvement over many years and would drive him still – what a loss. The Grenada Chocolate cooperative has 12 organic farms. Mott felt there should be hundreds.
Though bound to his task, Mott was a free spirit. He did all that his task required but did it his way. One account calls him a “Jewish anarchist chocolatier”. Of his Hobie Cat sailing and chocolate deliveries to Carriacou, one might say “ill advised”, to him it was a “wild, rough ride”, one of his favorite things. He found Grenada safe enough to live life with “reckless abandon”.
Some are at a loss for words. “Every time I went up there, he had done... something amazing.” Amazing, enthusiastic, energetic, imaginative, determined, dedicated, hard working, all sorts of good words fit, along with likeable and caring.
Mott was also an international traveler in the fine-chocolate world. There is now a flurry of micro-chocolate makers inspired by the success of his vision, enabled by small-batch chocolate machinery that didn’t exist before – Mott had to invent and build his own. Mott dropped out of engineering school but maybe they should give him a degree anyway. Mott’s contributions reach far beyond Grenada.
photo : thegoodwebguide.co.uk
The store’s selection of Grenada Chocolate was low even though Mott, days before his death, had sailed the wild waters to restock us. I asked the cashier if people were buying more. She nodded,
“Respect for Mott?”
“You understand.”
“I understand.”
Caribbean Compass, July '13