What does hops bread have to do with Ellerslie plaza??

Hops bread in Trinidad is as necessary to life as breathing oxygen. I remember, as a child, going to buy “loose hops bread” by the baker’s dozen, which was really 13 bread and not 12, from this Chinese guy in the back-roads of Tunapuna. He’d pack it neatly, as 2 columns of 2 hops bread each, in a brown paper bag, and twist the opposite ends of the top of the bag to seal it. But, not from me! On the way home, dirty hands and all, I would devour the warm crusty bread silently in the backseat of the car, lest my mother get wind of what I was doing.

Hops bread - hot and fresh from the oven

Now, not everyone has the skill to make hops bread, despite the grand charges made by many. The street vendors know where to buy the best freshly-made bread. It must be freshly-made because after a day or two, it quickly becomes useful for making breadcrumbs and little else.

It’s not a hamburger bun. Not a brioche roll. Not a mini-bake. Not a dinner roll. It’s a hops bread.

It’s versatile in that any filling can find a home in this bread, from ham, corned beef with cabbage, sausage, egg and saltfish, sardines, cheese, chow mein, fried channa or fried plantain or….the dreaded blood pudding. But, all with lots of tasty hot pepper sauce please!

The humble Hops bread and cheese

Why is it called Hops bread? What is its origin?

The story according to the Trinidad Guardian Newspaper:-

Brothers, Horatio and John Alfred Rapsey, left England to seek their fortunes. By 1845, the two were in Port of Spain, operating a tailor’s shop from a building on Edward St. where John Alfred died in 1853 from yellow fever.

Hops bread and smoked herring

Horatio left tailoring and opened a bakery at 62 Queen St, Port of Spain, later moving to 9 Frederick St. He married an English lady who bore him three sons. John Alfred (born in the same year his namesake uncle died-1853) inherited the bakery after his father, Horatio Snr. died in 1892.

John Alfred is credited with adopting an old technique he observed among the French Creole kitchens of Trinidad. This involved leavening a dough roll with an extract of the male hop flower which gave it an unusual crust and size. Originally, the loaves were baked wrapped in green banana leaves and then baked. Often, the finished bread would be delivered with dried banana leaf still stuck to it.

Hops bread and sardines

Thus hops bread began to be commercially baked around 1893 and with each loaf being sold at a penny apiece (day-old loaves being sold in front the bakery for halfpenny). Because of the price, hops bread was originally known as ‘penny loaves’ and was affordable to most.

Rapsey is also credited with either inventing or popularizing the ‘biscuit-cake’. A biscuit soaked in milk and then sprinkled with sugar thus producing another Trini classic known as "milk cake".

John Alfred Rapsey 1892 advertisement for his bakery in Port of Spain

In 1893, he also added a soft-drink factory to the business. Unsurprisingly, Rapsey became rich and in 1901 bought the entire Aranguez estate for $18,000 where he continued sugar cultivation, but also raised excellent cattle and produced excellent cheese and milk which were sold from the bakery and was also delivered to consumers packed in ice in a horsedrawn van and later, one of the earliest motor-trucks in the island.

John Alfred purchased the old home of the Zurcher family, Blarney, near to Maraval which was a magnificent house he renamed Ellerslie. John Alfred died in 1912 but his widow and children continued to run Aranguez estate, with emphasis on housing development rather than agriculture. The bakery was also closed in 1928.

Today, the Rapseys still maintain an interest in Aranguez estate, although most of the lands have now been sold or leased. On Mrs. M.A. Rapsey’s death in 1943 the grand house was demolished and the lands developed into what is now known as “Ellerslie Park” which was originally called ‘Champs Elysées’ – the Elysian Fields, and not “Ellerslie”.