Chocolate meets...
For reasons of historical chance and necessity, most of the world’s cocoa producers have always been nations with hot climates within 20 degrees of latitude from the equator, while most chocolate consumers have been located in the cooler higher latitudes. When the “from bean to bar” movement, in which the entire chocolate production process is managed by one company, got started roughly ten years ago in the United States, it still used imported ingredients. Taiwan, however, has extended this model to one that runs “from tree to bar.”
While Taiwan’s domestic market is currently quite small, with Taiwanese consuming an average of just 0.5 kg of chocolate per person per year, chocolate makers universally believe that it won’t be hard to get Taiwanese consumers to appreciate fine chocolate. They therefore feel that the market is on the verge of taking off. After all, boutique coffee culture is already flourishing in this land of tea.
Noting the correlation between chocolate and other food products, Wilma Ku, a food hunter and food-brand innovator, created the COFE and COTE brands.
Ku’s brands reflect both her playfulness and her ambition. “I started them just because I love coffee and I love chocolate. But I quickly realized that coffee and chocolate have very similar appeals: both emphasize origin and variety, and they develop their flavors in similar ways—from terroir and variety through fermentation and roasting. We also talk about coffee having cocoa flavors, and hear cocoa being described as having coffee notes. Plus, Taiwan produces both.”
COFE draws on the process for making white chocolate, mixing whole coffee beans, cocoa butter pressed from Pingtung cocoa beans at low temperature, and a small amount of sugar to produce an “edible coffee” reminiscent of chocolate.
Meanwhile, COTE, whose slogan is “tea to bar,” makes tea-flavored chocolates using the whole leaves of eight classic Taiwanese teas rather than brewed teas. Unlike most makers of tea-flavored chocolates, Ku doesn’t add powdered milk to hers to counter the astringency of the tealeaves. Instead, she uses locally produced soybean powder, creating a surprising new application for the legume.
Cheng Yu-hsuan, who hopes to one day plant his flag on chocolate’s “front line” in Paris, has observed that Europeans see East Asia as basically Japan and some other countries, and imagine Japanese flavors as limited to pomelo and macha. He says that if he were to open a shop in Paris, he’d like to continue to sell his “Taiwanese-style” chocolates in hopes of introducing a broader range of East-Asian flavors to this huge and stable market.
Local chocolate culture has become the newest addition to Taiwan’s global export lineup, one that Taiwanese farmers and chocolate makers, themselves recent additions to chocolate’s long lineage, are seeking to develop in new ways.
When chocolate is heated in a tempering machine and then cooled, it develops a brilliant sheen and a pleasing snap.
The intermingling of cocoa trees and areca (betelnut) palms is a unique feature of Pingtung’s cocoa producing areas.
Zeng Zhi-yuan Chocolate didn’t open a retail outlet until it had won honors at the International Chocolate Awards. The shop now enjoys a steady stream of customers.
Appreciating fine chocolate is much like tasting fine wine. Zeng Zhi-yuan chocolate has layers of flavor, with woody notes and hints of the soft acidity of tropical fruit.
Wilma Ku launched her COFE and COTE brands to promote fine chocolates. Her COFE Bar in Taipei’s Dadaocheng neighborhood also seeks to educate Taiwanese palates.
When chocolate and Taiwanese tea come together, fireworks result!