How Did Chocolate Start?

Chocolate was first consumed by various civilizations in South America who would take the cacao beans to make a warm drink called ”chocolatl”, which means “warm liquid”. When Hernando Cortez encountered the Aztecs, he brought it back to Spain where sugar was added along with other spices. The first solid chocolate was sold in 1847 in England, and milk chocolate was conceived in Sweden about 30 years later.

Chocolate has taken over the world since, and is known for its addicting, love-inspiring wonder. It took a while for it to get to Japan, however.

“Give Me Chocolate!”- The Reception

Japan had a few encounters with chocolate before they ended their isolation period. One of the few groups of people allowed into the country were Dutch, and sometimes brought the chocolate drink that had become popular among high-end people in Europe.  The first solid bar of chocolate sold in Japan is said to have been in the Meiji era, and was marketed as チョコレート , but with the kanji 貯古齢糖. Interestingly, those kanji individually mean “save”, “old”, “age”, and “sugar”. I think it kind of fits.

Chocolate started really being consumed during the occupation, when American soldiers would often throw candy to groups of Japanese children. Because of this, at this time one of the first English phrases that was learned and used by Japanese children was “Give me chocolate!”

So chocolate as it is today became mass produced after the occupation time. That means it is much newer to Japan than compared to the Americas or Europe. So what has been done in that little time?

So What’s The Spin?

There’s just something about Japanese chocolate that makes it unique. Is it the fact that each bite-sized piece is individually pre-cut or wrapped? Is it the fact that milk chocolate sometimes has a little bit of hazelnut flavor added to it? Is it the fact that it has a more creamy, melty, chocolatey taste? Who knows.

One of the biggest selling points of Japanese chocolate, though, is the sheer variety of flavors. Technically, many of them don’t actually count as chocolate because they don’t have cacao in them. However, popular definition deems them still chocolate, and the multitude of types and flavors is awe-inspiring.

One thing that Japan likes doing with any sort of product or marketing is regional limited editions. One fantastic example of this is Kit Kat, where there have been over 200 and counting various flavors. Ever wanted to try a wasabi-flavored Kit Kat? What about strawberry shortcake? Soy sauce? My favorite is the sweet-potato flavored one. Back in my exchange student days, I would buy a sweet potato flavored Kit Kat bar almost every day in the fall from the convenience store attached to the train station near my school. I was addicted.

Another delicious regional chocolate is Meltykiss. Meltykiss usually appears around winter, and is a delicious melty, rich, creamy chocolate. Think like the inside of a truffle. Meltykiss also comes in a good variety of flavors including green tea, strawberry, and milk tea.

Other delicious spins include chocoballs (literally just balls of chocolate), Koala no march, and the ever-famous Pocky. Which one is your favorite?

The Big Five

In Japan, there are five distinct mainstream snack brands: Lotte, Meiji, Morinaga, Ezaki Glico, and Fujiya. All have their own gimmicks and different delicious types of chocolates. Think of them like the Hershey’s, Nestle’s, and Mars of Japan.

In this clip from the TV show Gaki no Tsukai, the members of the show do a blind test of different kinds of chocolate bars. They have a hard time distinguishing between them. Would you?

Which Japanese chocolate brand is your favorite? Mine is kind of a tie between Meiji (after all, according to their commercials, chocolate IS Meiji) and Dars.

Chocolate and Valentine’s Day

In Japan, Valentine’s Day has sort of turned into “chocolate day”. When the holiday first became popular, it was known as a day when girls confessed their love to a boy by giving him chocolate. But somewhere throughout the past thirty years or so, girls must have said “why don’t we get any chocolate?”, and now chocolate is given to everyone and by everyone. I mean, think of it in this example: Nao made homemade namachoco for her friends Naho and Rumi, but it would be rude to just give it to those two, so she has to make enough for all of her female classmates. And then, what about her best friends in other classes? And club-mates?

To mend this problem of chocolate-hoarding, often on Valentine’s day you’ll see girls walking around with a big bag full of chocolates to give to every single person who is her friend (those chocolates are called tomo-choko [friend-chocolate]) and anyone she feels obligated to give chocolate to (giri-choko [obligation-chocolate]). To read more about this, check out Koichi’s old post about Valentine’s Day in Japan.

Other than plain chocolate, making chocolate truffles, cookies, or decoration chocolates are all well-received and can be fun to make. On the Valentine’s Day that I spent in Japan, I remember eating chocolate throughout the day, kind of like how I did in America, but this time it was mostly home-made and hand-wrapped.

If you know that you’re receiving tomo-choko, consider yourself lucky! Especially if you didn’t give anything back. But don’t worry if you forgot, you can always repay the person who gave you chocolate by giving them a present back a month later on White Day, March 14th.

Japanese Chocolate Creativity

Anything in the world is just a canvas for art, right? Well it is to these creative chocolate artists:

Want to prank someone into thinking that you’re giving them sushi, takoyaki, or much-loved natto? Well, there’s chocolate for that. Imagine their face when they open up the natto wrapper to find, ew, chocolate instead of their favorite food of smelly fermented soybeans.

Or make an iPhone out of chocolate!

These adorable girls can teach you how to make a chocolate cake in a rice cooker. Ghana seems to be the chocolate of choice when it comes to cooking and baking.

As you can see, chocolate is loved and used in Japan just as much as the rest of the world. What other kinds of creative ways do you think people can use chocolate in?

Can’t Get Enough?

If this post has left you drooling for chocolate (I scream, you scream, we all scream for chocolate ice cream!), here’s a few Japanese chocolate-inspired songs to curb (or inflame) your desire for chocolate, so you can even think about chocolate when you’re out and about!

Chocolate Disco by Perfume

Bitter Chocolate by SCANDAL

So what is Japan’s relationship with chocolate? I’d say that Japan is just as crazy about chocolate as any other country. Although their consumption rates are lower than most European countries and the US, when you take into account how much later it was introduced to the country, they could be catching up! Better chocolate than never!

So what do you think of Japanese chocolate? Or chocolate in general? Let me know in the comments!

Bonus Wallpapers

[2560x1600 - Orange] • [1280x800 - Orange] • [2560x1600 - Pink] • [1280x800 - Pink]

There’s probably no better descriptor for the whimsical, gigantic candy industry in Japan. For some, Japan is the mecca of candy. Year after year its companies pour out incredibly novel candies that would astonish even Roald Dahl.

Among all of those sweets, one stands above all the rest: chocolate. Chocolate has gained a lot of significance in Japanese culture and society. It’s not only an everyday treat, but it can have a lot of symbolism too.

For example Valentine’s Day in Japan, like in the US, is a very chocolate-centric holiday; however, unlike the US, different types of chocolate have very different meanings. God forbid you give giri, not honmei chocolate to that one special person.

And the Japanese are getting better and better at making the stuff. Last year a Japanese chocolatier, Susumu Koyama, was declared “Best Foreign Chocolatier” at the 17^th annual Salon du Chocolat, a French chocolate tradeshow. From the low-end sweets to the high-end, gourmet chocolates, Japan dominates when it comes to chocolate.

Because of chocolate’s importance in Japan, it’s maybe not surprising that the Japanese take chocolate very seriously. In fact, the regulation of chocolate in Japan is extremely strict.

Part of any government’s job is to make sure that people aren’t mislead when they buy things. For example, when a company calls a food “organic” or “local,” those labels have specific meanings set by the government. Same thing with chocolate. You can’t just call anything “dark chocolate” — it has to meet certain standards.

And is it local?

It turns out the Japanese government has some of the strictest chocolate standards in the world. You’d think that Switzerland or Belgium or some other place known for its chocolates would be more serious about it, but it turns out that the Japanese are basically second to none.

In 1971, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission was granted sweeping powers to regulate chocolate to make sure that Japanese customers know exactly what they’re getting.

All in all, the Fair Trade Commission classifies six types of “chocolate materials” that are used to make up four types of “chocolate products.” They are:

Chocolate Materials

• Pure chocolate material (純チョコレート生地)
• Pure milk chocolate material (純ミルクチョコレート生地)
• Chocolate material (チョコレート生地)
• Milk chocolate material (ミルクチョコレート生地)
• Quasi chocolate material (準チョコレート生地)
• Quasi milk chocolate material (準ミルクチョコレート生地)

Each of these have to have very specific percentages of various ingredients — cocoa, milk fat, etc.. Otherwise it’s, in the eyes of the Fair Trade Commission, misrepresenting itself. Out of those materials, you can make any of four chocolate products:

Chocolate Products

• Chocolate (チョコレート)
• Chocolate sweet (チョコレート菓子)
• Quasi chocolate (準チョコレート)
• Quasi chocolate sweet (準チョコレート菓子)

Confusing? Absolutely. I don’t think that I’ve ever closely inspected a chocolate bar to really care about its cocoa content, or a palate sophisticated enough to really tell the difference.

Regardless, it’s good to see that within the confines of his factory Willy Wonka-san is keeping tight control over things. Don’t want too many Augustus Gloops running around ruining things.

Types of chocolate

For most of us in the West, Valentine’s Day ends on February 15, but in Japan it’s not quite over until March 15. March 14 – exactly one month after Valentine’s Day – is White Day in Japan.

Valentine’s Day In Japan

To really understand what White Day is all about, you have to understand what Valentine’s Day in Japan is like. Koichi did a writeup about it a while ago so I won’t go into detail here, but the basic gist of Japanese Valentine’s Day is that it’s all about the guys.

Unlike Western traditions where gift exchanges between loved ones are mutual, Japanese Valentine’s Day is all about men getting presents. Sorry ladies, but you’re out of luck on Valentine’s Day if you want to celebrate it Japanese-style. Women have to wait for White Day before they can get any gifts.

What Is White Day?

If Valentine’s Day in Japan is all about the guys, White Day is all about the ladies. White Day is a chance for all the men who received gifts on Valentine’s Day to return the favor to the ladies in their lives.

White Day and Valentine’s Day have a lot of similarities. Both aren’t necessarily romantic holidays – you can give gifts to anybody of the opposite sex, even if your relationship is strictly platonic. Friends and co-workers exchange gifts on both days.

Note: ice-cold response not typical.

And on both days, chocolate is the gift of choice, but there’s a bit more nuance to it than buying a box of See’s and being done with it. You can buy different types of chocolate for the different people in your life: your friends get different chocolates than your co-workers who get different chocolates than your significant other.

Confused yet? Don’t worry, Koichi’s Valentine’s Day post explains it all.

The Origins Of White Day

Cynically enough, White Day is strictly a celebration manufactured by the candy industry (unlike true holidays rooted in years of tradition, like Pocky Day). In 1978, the National Confectionery Industry Association tried to boost sales, and decided that a new holiday was the best way to do it.

Originally it was called Marshmallow Day and was all about marshmallows, not chocolate. People liked the idea of the new holiday, but weren’t too keen on the marshmallows. The preferred candy changed from marshmallows to chocolate, but the color scheme stayed the same – hence the name “White Day,” and why white chocolate remains a popular White Day gift, even today.

White Day Outside Of Japan

White Day is definitely a uniquely Japanese invention, but it’s spread to some other Asian countries, including South Korea and China.

South Korea even has yet another Valentine’s-Day-related holiday: the aptly named day for single people, Black Day. People in Korea celebrate being single by burying their sorrows with a noodle dish with black bean sauce called jajangmyeon.

(No doubt, Black Day is just a ploy by the powerful Korean noodle industry.)

[hr]

So for those in you in Japan, I hope you’re having a happy White Day today; those of us elsewhere in the world will just have to buy our own chocolate.

[Header image source.]

A couple months back, we already talked about how different the Japanese Christmas is. Now it’s time to take a look at another holiday that’s isn’t quite the same in Japan: Valentine’s Day.

As with all Western holidays that have made their way over to Japan, almost all of the changes and “traditions” have been created by commercial organizations, looking to build swimming pools of 500 yen coins. In fact, only during one week before Valentine’s Day, chocolate companies make half of their annual sales. That’s a lot of money, and a lot of chocolate.

Then again, in America (and other places too), we give a lot of chocolate as well. So, what makes Japan different?

Only Girls Give Chocloate

Back in the 1950′s, a company advertised Valentine’s Day chocolates to non-Japanese living in Japan at the time. Then, Japanese companies wanted to get on board too, and started advertising Valentine’s Day chocolates as well. During this period there was quite a bit of “Westernization” where people wanted to adopt more Western / American traditions. Because of this, Valentine’s Day in Japan did fairly well.

But there was one problem…

It seems that at some point someone messed up a translation and ended up telling the Japanese people that Valentine’s Day was an opportunity for women to express their love to men. Because of this, even to this day it’s mostly women giving chocolates to men (don’t worry, men get their turn too, eventually).

Giri-Chocolate, Honmei-Chocolate, and Tomo-Chocolate

It gets more complicated, though. Because it’s not nice to make people feel left out on Valentine’s day (especially in, say, the office), there are different kinds of chocolates girls give out now, depending on who they’re giving it to.

Giri-Chocolate (義理チョコ)

Giri-Chocolate means “obligatory chocolate.” This kind of chocolate refers to the chocolate you have to give to people (who aren’t really people you love). These could be people like bosses, coworkers, male friends, etc. Even sadder still, there’s also something called “Cho-Giri-Chocolate” (Ultra-obligatory-chocolate), which is given to unpopular people you really don’t want to give chocolates to.

In order to tell these chocolates apart from other (less obligatory) chocolates, these chocolates tend to be pretty run-of-the-mill, and not super expensive. Things don’t start getting crazy until we get to Honmei-Chocolates.

Honmei-Chocolate (本命チョコ)

Honmei-Chocolate means “favorite chocolate.” This kind of chocolate is the kind of chocolate you give to the one you want to express your love to. These chocolates tend to be more expensive or possibly even home made. Basically, it has to be obvious that these are honmei and not giri, so they have to be on a completely different level (Way to go Chocolate companies! Ka-Ching! ￥￥￥￥).

Tomo-Chocolate (友チョコ)

Tomo-choco just means “friend chocolates,” and refers to chocolates you give to your female friends (as a female). Simple as that.

Getting The Guys To Give

Guys don’t give anything on Valentine’s Day in Japan, but they do have their own day one month later where they’re expected to return the favor. That day is known as “White Day” (or, if you’re old enough to remember, “Marshmallow Day”), and it also sounds pretty expensive.

To learn about that, though, you’ll have to wait for a month. On March 14 I’ll post something up about White Day as well, so you’ll have to wait until then! :)

Everyone enjoy their Valentine’s Day… and to all you girls out there: I’m waiting for my cho-giri-choco from you.

P.S. If you didn’t get me any cho-giri-choco, then shame on you.

P.P.S. You can make it up to me by following Tofugu on Twitter.

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