Cultural Influence Trinidad and Tobago is a country with diverse cultural backgrounds that reflects the influence of African, Indian, Amerindian, Chinese, British, French and to a lesser extent Spanish and Portuguese.

Food We could go on and on about the delectable cuisine that Trinidad and Tobago has to offer, but instead:

Of course there’s more, but we highly recommend that you go to

Trinidad and Tobago to get the full knowledge and experience of the cuisine.

The popular local desserts are usually extremely sweet. Local snacks include cassava or potato pone and stewed guavas, sweetbread, paw paw balls, tamarind balls, bene balls, toolum, guava cheese (guava paste), jub jub and sugar cakes. Local chocolatiers and confectioners manufacture several different types of sweet treats. Indian delicacies like khurma, gulab jamoon, ladoo and barfi are also popular.

There are many different popular beverages in Trinidad. These include, various sweet drinks (Sodas) (Chubby, Solo, Peardrax), and also Malta, Smalta, Shandy, portugal juice, ginger beer, Peanut punch, sorrel, mauby, seamoss punch, barbadine punch, and soursop punch.

Coconut water is found on almost every metre of the island. Rum was invented in the Caribbean, therefore Trinidad and Tobago boasts rum shops all over the island, serving local favourites such as ponche-de-crème, puncheon rum, and home-made wines from local fruits.

Fruits available in Trinidad include mangoes (bastapool, belly-bef, calabash, cedar, cutlass, doudouce, Graham, ice-cream, Julie, long, pawpaw, Peter, rose, round, starch, teen, turpentine, vert, zabrico), breadfruit, sorrel (roselle), passion fruit, watermelons, sapodilla, pomerac (Syzygium samarangense), guavas, Tahitian apple (pommecythère or golden apple), caimite (star apple), abiu, five fingers (carambola), cherries, zaboca (avocado), pawpaw (papaya), chenette (mamoncillo), pineapples, oranges, Portugal (clementines of various genetic breeding), governor plum, West Indian (Barbadian) cherry (Acerola), bananas (sikyé, silk, Gros Michel, Lacatan), barbadine (granadilla), balatá, soursop, cashews, and coconuts (several varieties).

Carnival The most influential single factor on the culture of Trinidad and Tobago is Carnival. Carnival was brought to Trinidad by French settlers in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Originally the celebration was confined to the elite, but it was imitated and adapted by their slaves and, after the abolition of slavery in 1834 the practice spread into the free population. The Canboulay Riots of 1881 were a turning point in the evolution of Trinidad Carnival. Carnival was originally confined to the upper classes, who rode the streets in floats, or watched from the upper storeys of residences and businesses. The night was given over to the lower classes. The first few hours of Carnival Monday morning, from about 4 am until sunrise, was known as J'ouvert (a contraction of jour ouvert). Costumed and masked by the darkness, J'ouvert allowed the wealthy to mix with the poor in relative anonymity. Monday night (night 'mas) had a similar, but lesser function.

The daytime of Carnival Monday and Tuesday are dominated by costumed masqueraders. Until World War II most of these masqueraders portrayed traditional characters including the Midnight Robber, Police and Thief, Wild Indian, Bat, Jab Molassie, Jab Jab, Red Devil, Blue Devil, and Dame Lorraine. The wartime presence of American soldiers (and war movies) added the Sailor Mas'. In the postwar period the individuals gave way to organised bands, which today can include thousands of masqueraders. Peter Minshall is often considered the greatest mas' designer.

Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago Parang is a traditional form of music at this time of year. Pastelle, black cake, fruit cake, sweet bread paime are customary eats; Peardrax, ponche de creme, beer, sorrell wine are the drinks. This is one of the biggest celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago since most of the people are Christians

Beaches. We will allow the pictures to speak for themselves.