I’m a bit surprised. Partially because they can control the entire process from bean to bar and not just break it up into huge commercial production areas.
Grown in Pingtung and taking advantage of the betelnut farms. Also won two silver’s.
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Go Taiwan!
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I tried that Fu Wan brand and got some as a gift. Fits my taste very, very well - but is friggin expensive: 280+ NTD per tiny (45g?) bar. Still, those strong tea flavors, together with very rounded chocolate taste, are very special I think. I like the 62% Taiwan Tie-Guan-Yin Tea Chocolate (380 NTD) best.
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It’s going to be super expensive I guess.
By the way Tie GUan Yin (oolong) goes fantastically well with any good chocolate.
There is a tie guan yin chocolate popcorn that’s awesomely addictive.
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Ah I bet that’s good. Tieguanyin is well-suited to combining with chocolate. It’s got such a special flavor profile.
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Nice.
Does anyone know where I can get some cacao seedlings / plants from?
Congrats, well deserved.
Snaps to Chiu Ming sung, for taking the risk and planting something other than another dreadful Betel palm.
I do smell the aroma of a Taiwan niche industry and all of its associated quacks here though, so can only imagine this chocolate is going to be sold in micro packages for enormous sums. Can they make another version for the common plebian?
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yeah, we’ll make a bar for the masses. It’ll be 5 years off, and we need the plants first (see above).
There are a few small chocolate producers around the pingtung area, they have been doing well in international competitions for a few years. They also produced a few strange products that I think only appeal to the local market, for example a chocolate based vinegar drink (I think it’s wrong but the wife loves it) and a chocolate tea using different parts of the plant (this is quite nice).
I also know a couple of retired people who have small holdings / allotments who also grow and produce chocolate just for fun.
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He’s forward thinking, knowing that he needed an alternative to the non-government subsidized betel nut industry (as mentioned in the report). Good for him and the other farmers!
I remember reading about him last year in 天下 magazine. It was a gutsy move, but luckily one that worked out just fine for him, it seems.
That’s what they do, win some prices and get people to invest in their company and customers will line up.
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Häagen-Dazs Taiwan chocolate ice cream?
Don’t they grow the two plants at the same time. Coffee is grown like that in Gukeng.
Chocolate grows and fruits well in the south. We planted our first farm with it about 12 years ago but sold the farm. The guys in pingtung were successful due to their coffee ahop in Neipu which was a pretty neat place. Then everyone and their uncle started planting cacao. Relatively common now but note a lot of taiwan cacao is still imported and blended without the label reflecting so 
old habits die hard. Though nothing wring with importing it, many of the chocolate makers here have great tasting products.
@brianjones they usually grow cacao here under betel nut because betel nut lets through a lot of light. Cacao prefers mild shade to avoid leaf burn on new growth.
They are fairly tropical so Tainan south gets a good crop. They will live further north but cold snaps really hurt them. That freak cold snap a few years back made almost all the leaves drop on even the southern pingtung farms.
@nuit. We should still have small pla ts in the nursery. Need to check when i get back. If you need them shoot me a message. They will grow well tainan south and certain pickets of Taitung.
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Someone ate Ireland
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No one will notice.
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Too tasty.