The first known use of chocolate was as an alcoholic beverage, according to residue found in clay jars in Honduras dated from 1100 B.C. Cocoa beans then found their way throughout South America, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Spain, and thus to the rest of Europe, using unsuspecting (and addicted) humans as their mules. Through the natural course of events chocolate then ended up in England and later in the United States. People in the Western world have been greedily hoarding and consuming chocolate ever since.
According to Ryan Freund (in an article on The Motley Fool), Europeans and Americans purchase chocolate, on average, $50 per capita annually (Europeans a tad less and Americans a tad more). That means you and everyone you know probably spends an average of $50/year on chocolate each (though if you’re reading this article, you probably spend a little more). Jennifer Fishbein of Business Week breaks it down into pounds consumed and points out that the British and Swiss consume up to 24 pounds of chocolate per person per year.
Turning the focus East, however, chocolate is a relative newcomer in places like China, India, Burma, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. In India, the average amount of chocolate consumed per person per year is estimated at 5.8 ounces, while in China it is a mere 3.5 ounces per year. However, that is 64% more than what Indians were eating, and double what Chinese were consuming a year ago. Chocolate is not a traditional sweet in Asia; however, it is fast becoming a favorite. Both chocolate companies and chocolatiers are banking that Asia will be the new market for chocolate.
Yet at the same time that chocolate is taking over Asia, countries all over Asia are adapting chocolate to suit their traditional cuisine and palates, as well as accepting the more traditional (to the Western mind) candy bars for consumption. There have been some misses, such as Nestle’s coconut flavored Munch bar, Mars candies, and Cadbury’s Kalakand Crème, based on a local sweet of nuts and cheese in India. Though Cadbury and Nestle created their candies to cater to the Indian sweet tooth, they were poor sellers and were on the market for only a little while before being pulled. The Mars company, at the other end of the spectrum, has not yet figured out that China’s consumers prefer a less sweet candy.
Despite this, however, there is a whole new fusion of flavors in the realm of chocolate. Some chocolate companies in the United States, such as Vosges, already offer chocolate mixed with exotic flavors like sesame seeds, ginger, goji berries, and curry. Epicurious.com offers a varied list of recipes for desserts that mix chocolate with Asian spices and fruits. However, chefs, chocolate companies, and chocolatiers in Asia are taking the mixing of chocolaty goodness with their own traditional flavors to an entirely different level. While this surge is occurring all over Asia, this article will focus on China, India, and Singapore.
China
Nestle, Hershey, Mars, Ferrero, and Cadbury, among others, have made large inroads on the Asian palate with offerings like KitKat Green Tea Kisses in China. According to the International Herald Tribune, Hershey and South Korea’s Lotte Confectionary Company have set up a joint venture chocolate factory, headquartered out of Hong Kong, yet run in Shanghai, China. Though South Korea will have a 51% share, they plan on creating Hershey’s regular products, such as Kisses and Reeses, and plan to pull in Shanghai’s cosmopolitan market. In addition, gourmet restaurants, such as SPOON in Hong Kong, now have executive chefs such as Christophe Grilo, who creates chocolate delights like Chocolate Fondant with Lemon Zest Praline and Vanilla Ice Cream.
One chocolate Chinese dessert that is an example of the exotic mix of flavors is Chocolate Ginger Lychees. Lychees are a sweet fruit grown throughout Asia. The rind is inedible but removable to reveal a soft, grape-like white-fleshed fruit that is very sweet. Lychee is a very distinctly Chinese flavor. Because the fruit does not last long off the branch, it is typically found canned. In this particular recipe, candied ginger is cut up, stuffed inside the lychee (there is an opening at one end) and then dipped in melted chocolate and placed on wax paper until it cools. This combines sweet, spicy and even bitter flavors (in the chocolate) to create a uniquely Chinese Chocolate Dessert.
India
While Western companies like Hershey and Callebaut have set up factories in China in bringing chocolate to Asia, India has been producing its own chocolate confectionaries. RB Mangaraham, known primarily for its cookies and wafers, got into the chocolate business about fifteen years ago with its Chocolate Pralines. These chocolate goodies have become so popular in India that Mangaraham has developed The Chocolate Project: a business program to help cater and set up small chocolate confectionaries with recipes, moulds, and machines in small towns as well as cities to help people get the sweets they want for holidays, weddings, and other celebrations. They also serve many of the major hotels throughout India.
Another chocolatier in India is Moksha Chocolates, a purveyor of handmade chocolates that caters to both Indians and Indian expats alike. Their choices in flavors are what would be found with just about any chocolatier (with a slight variation): Honey Almond, Almond Rock, Mint, Coffee, Just Nuts, Milky Nuts, etc, as well as some liqueur flavors like whisky, rum, vodka, gin, and brandy. They specialize in packages for weddings, Diwali, and Valentines, as well as births, anniversaries, and other special occasions and also have special Bitter Sweet and Bitter Bitter Sweet collections, as well as Sugar Free. They send to the US and India only.
Singapore
Singapore also has a population that is learning to love chocolate and has some of the expendable income to afford good chocolate. Joe Lee, a graduate from the Ecole Chocolat, a professional school for the chocolate arts, set up ChocoElf with his wife Josephine after seeing the happiness that a small piece of good chocolate can bring to a sick child. They decided then to set up a company that sold the magic of chocolate, as well as chocolate itself. The different flavors in their truffles range from the everyday, such as almond, to flavors like mango, apricot, lime, passion fruit, green tea, earl grey tea, ginseng, chrysanthemum, wolfberry, and jasmine. They even have candies such as the Flossy White Chocolate Lucky Sticks: a bread stick with white chocolate and savory chicken floss. There’s also the chocolate covered figs and chocolate covered dried apricots. These chocolatiers have delved into the flavors of Singapore and truly tried to meld chocolate with their traditional sweets.
But Singapore hasn’t stopped with the gastronomical delights of chocolate; they’ve also developed chocolate spa therapy and have been one of the first in the world to practice it. Patented as the Choc-DeAger, their process uses the Chocolatier Massage, a combination of warm chocolate and sweet almond oil. Chocolate has four times as many anti-oxidants as green tea. In addition, it is endorphin-enhancing, increases blood circulation, and hydrates the skin, as well as soothes and lubricates it. This is followed by a Chocolate Fondue Wrap. If you’re on a diet and need to pamper yourself and really need that chocolate fix, this might be the way to do it.
