Okinawa trip - Day 4 - 1%

 

Okinawa trip - Day 4

1%

My buddy saw a clip about a bean to bar chocolate shop where they offered chocolate-making workshop and tour of their cacao plantation. So we made a booking. The experience was on the pricey side, but it's an experience you can't get anywhere else in Japan. We went up to the rural area of Okinawa, away from the beaches. It was a pleasant drive to the shop. The shop didn't have any big signs, but it was right across the street from a community market (that was closed, probably for the obon holiday). We got there early, so I roamed around the area to see what I can find. I saw banana plants and shikwasa trees (shikwasa is a Okinawan citrus that tastes kind of like a mix between a lime and orange). There was also a lovely river flowing nearby. 

The shop was open by the time I got back, so we went in. We were still pretty early for our appointment, but the shop owner came out to give us a tour. He didn't speak much English so he was relieved that I was fluent in Japanese. He started off by explaining how Okinawa is just north of the cacao growing belt (20 degrees north and south of the equator) and has a winter (tho temps don't drop as far as it does in my neck of the woods) so the cacao pods are grown in greenhouses. The greenhouses retain enough warmth in the winter without having to heat them in the winter. He said it took him about a decade before he could produce chocolates from the pods and just started to sell the chocolates and offering workshops last year. 

He took us to his greenhouses where he has a variety of cacao trees. There was a wall of tall reeds surrounding the greenhouses and they were planted to help protect the cacao from typhoon damages. Okinawa was recently hit by a rather big typhoon, but although the reed sustained some damages, the cacao tree were safe. Man, I did not know that teeny tiny 1/2-inch blossoms could produce 1lb cacao pods. The flowers bloom directly on the trunk so that's where the pods grow. They just harvested the pods last month, so we saw smaller pods that'll ripe in the fall. It was pretty cool to see the pods in different stages of growth. While the trunks are covered in blossoms, only 1% actually turn into ripe cacao pods. Ants are the main pollinators. That was different. We were told that 1 pod produces 1 square of chocolate. Wow. That's a lot of beans for a small piece of chocolate. 

After a tour of the cacao trees, the owner took us back to the shop for the chocolate making workshop. We made a simple chocolate made with crushed cacao beans, cacao butter, sugar, and dry fruit for decoration. He had us peel a couple of beans and taste it. The roasted beans were edible as is. It was a bit bitter, but not as bitter as cocoa powder. Then we tried the bean with a bit of sugar. The sugar enhanced the flavor. We then proceeded to literally put the crushed beans through the grinder until they turned into a fine powder. The grinder they use is called "Yomekko-san" (yomekko is a rural way of saying bride or wife and the kanji for rice can also be read as yome, and kanji for powder can be red as ko). This particular grinder was originally made to make rice flour, but it was found that it's also good for making chocolate. 

Now back to chocolate. After the beans are ground to a certain extent, we added cocoa butter and ground the mixture some more until we got a chocolate paste. The owner got us to taste the chocolate and it reminded my buddy of baking chocolate. We told the owner how it's common for households to have baking chocolate on hand for baking cakes, pies, and cookies. It's not all that common for Japanese households to bake cakes for scratch. But then, there are a lot of cake shops so it's more convenient to buy slices than to bake an entire cake. We added Okinawa cane sugar (Okinawa also grows sugar canes) to the chocolate paste, and ran it through the grinder until well mixed. When that was done, we transferred the chocolate to a mixing bowl for tempering the chocolate. We slowly lowered the temperature by putting the bowl in cold water while continuing to mix the chocolate, take it out, mix it some more, put the bowl back into the cold water, and repeat the process until the chocolate reaches 27C. Then we heated the bowl with a hair dryer until the chocolate reached 30C. This process helps harden the chocolate when it's cooled. We put the chocolate into trays and decorated the chocolate with dried fruit (green mango, pineapple, and watermelon) and candied shikwasa peels. Everything we used for the chocolate were locally sourced. Unfortunately, the typhoon took out one of the mango trees so they're going to have to plant another one. 

We were offered tasting samples of the chocolates they produce with awamori (Okinawa spirit), getto (shell ginger), shikwasa, or karaki (Okinawa cinnamon). There were also dried fruit dipped in chocolate. I wasn't a fan of the getto chocolate, but I really liked the one with shikwasa. The chocolates were hella expensive, but taking into consideration the scale, labor, everything being locally sourced, and quality, it could be worse. The chocolate would most like be double the price in Tokyo. We picked up some chocolate and also had chocolate shaved ice topped with green mango syrup. Now, that was a treat. 

It was a fun experience and would recommend if you don't mind the price (roughly 57 USD for the tour and workshop per person at the current exchange rate). It's not something you'd see anywhere else in Japan. 

After the chocolate workshop, we headed to the Nago Pineapple Park, since it was relatively close to where we were. My buddy's been wanting to check it out. The parking is far from the entrance, but they have a pineapple train to shuttle people from the parking lot to the park entrance. You'll need to buy your tickets, either online or at the booth before you get on the pineapple train. 

When you get to the entrance, you get on this self-driving pineapple cart. It's really cute. It'll take you to the top of the park while riding through the dinosaur jungle (yeah, dinosaurs are popular at parks and you'll usually see dinos at a lot of the theme parks). We saw a lot of pineapple plants, but we didn't see many actual pineapples. They did sell pineapple products, like sweets, wines, drinks, and snacks. Instead of a park about pineapples, it felt more like pineapple-themed dinosaur park. But still, it was a cute park and they did have some nice fruity wines.

As is the case with theme parks, you cannot avoid passing through the souvenir shop on the way out. We found the wine shop and the lady offering tastings was really cheerful and friendly. Since my buddy was driving, I was sampling the wines and describing how they taste. The pineapple 100% wine wasn't as good as I hoped, but the charonnay/pineapple wine blend was nice, and so was the cabernet sauvignon/pineapple blend. But the one I liked the best was the lemon sparkling wine. That's lethal. You don't really notice the alcohol. So we both got a bottle of the red and white blends, along with the lemon sparkling wine. 

On the way back, he stopped at a convenience store that was next to a roadside station. I wanted to check that shop out, so I left him at the convenience store and headed for the shop. It was like any other roadside stations, offering local produce and goods. My buddy caught up with me and found a baseball cap he liked. I picked up a some candies and Okinawa jasmine tea. My buddy told me that he got me a treat and will show me when we got back to the car. What was the treat? Okinawa root beer!! Not A&W, but an original produced by Family Mart, one of the major convenience store chains in Japan. 

By the time we got home, it was dinnertime, so we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant. We kept ordering until we got our fill. I was full, but I felt like I wanted a bit more, but couldn't figure out what until I saw the soft serve ice cream machine next to the soft drinks dispenser. Perfect! 

We went back home with a full belly and watched a movie (seems like that's how we spend our evenings lol ). I started to fade after watching one movie, so I bid my buddy good night and went to bed. I think he stayed up for a while playing a video game. 

 Aug 29