On a rare sunny weekend, I went to a hot market. The first place that attracted me was the self-made chocolate steak "Cocostan" from Pingtung.

Stein is the English name of Liu Shitian, a tree man. With a smile on the side, is it Cocoa Coco the one who tries to eat chocolate beans? Wu Cuixia smiled and said, "No, no, it's the interest of making cocoa trees and making chocolates after retirement. I will cooperate with him." The two office workers who were originally incompatible with chocolate have retired and have never stopped, and have built their interest in a sound and color. They started to grow cocoa trees in 2010 and started to harvest the next year. In order to explore and experience, they have now reached a mature stage where products have been available throughout the year. It takes about five years to plant cocoa trees to grow cocoa trees that can be produced. "Stan" Liu Shitian was very lucky to have obtained a small tree that had been big for four years from his friend's place. After the transplant, the flowering results were bloomed the next year, which made him, who originally wanted to play with coffee beans, embarked on the road of thick chocolate half-stop.

The climate of Pingtung is very suitable for the growth of hot tree trees. As long as you pay attention to water, the cocoa trees do not need to be fertilized, and they can grow well. Stan, who is confident in cocoa trees, believes that as long as there is sufficient sunlight and moisture, it can be used in Taiwan regardless of north or south. To prove his opinion, he handed me a pot of cocoa seedlings. After about five years, he went to this tree called Cocostan to take fruit.

A cocoa tree can produce about 20 to 40 fruit trees a year. I picked up the heavy fruit trees and estimated that the weight of each fruit trees is at least one kilogram (600 grams) to one kilogram. However, more than 90% of the consumption will be consumed from cocoa fruit to cocoa beans during processing. That is to say, a kilogram of fruit can only have up to 100 grams of cocoa beans. I calculated in my brain and wondered if there were several types. Because making cocoa beans into pure chocolate will reduce half of the weight, so there are several types of trees no matter how you calculate it.

This is also strange. The price of cocoa beans and chocolate-related products produced in Taiwan is much higher than that of imported ones. In the native place of chocolate, Central and South America, the production volume is based on tens of tons and hundreds of tons, which seems to be different from the more stingy local production capacity.

For me, cocoa trees are a pleasure and a healthy pursuit of life, because it is not too difficult to make cocoa beans and chocolates. As long as you don’t standardize the chocolate products on the market, you can return to the original taste of the food itself and spend some time making chocolate by yourself, just like eating at home, it is the most ideal way to eat. The nutritional value of

Chocolate depends on pureness, which is not the percentage printed on the chocolate packaging paper, but the degree of process from fresh fruit. Open the cocoa beans, and the cocoa beans inside are wrapped in the white sticky flesh, just like the pulp of the pulp covered with seeds. The sweet and sour flesh that tastes sweet and sour contains sugar and will naturally ferment at a temperature of 40 to 50 degrees. After four to five days of fermentation, the dry flesh is removed, which is cocoa beans.

There is also a thin shell on the cocoa beans. After drying and crushing, the shell can be removed by blowing. Next, use a grinder to grind the crushed cocoa beans into paste. The cocoa beans melt at 35 degrees Celsius and are made in small quantities. It is also possible to use a small grinding mortar in the home kitchen.

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In the commercialization process, after this stage, the cocoa fat will be separated because the melting point of the cocoa butter is slightly lower than that of the human body, which is very suitable for adding to the cosmetic raw materials. Cheap chocolates are used to replace the fat that is removed with other cheap oils. If you make it by yourself, you don’t need to separate the cocoa butter. You can put it in a container to condense it to make a 100% pure chocolate block.

However, chocolate with a pure 100% pureness is so bitter and bitter. Although the nutrients are not worthy of food, it is a great chocolate for healthy drinks. After Cocostan patiently and carefully explained, I decided to buy a few cocoa fruits online and try to make chocolate by myself. Fortunately, I can eat locally produced and handmade chocolates in Taiwan. This is a real happiness that cannot be replaced by any famous brand or high-priced packaging.