How Vietnam Makes Chocolate!! Sonny and the Chocolate Factory!!

this small farm is located in a nearly impossible defined back street of vietnam's rural mekong delta you kind of have a welcome drink for us this land is the birthplace of some of the best cacao in the world it's not tea it's not coffee something mr lao found out just one year ago as far as i understand you've taken the cacao and you've made it into kind of an alcohol is that right for a long time this time the whitish substance inside the cacao pod surrounding the seeds this pulp used to be considered waste but now mr lau has found another use for it he extracts the juices boils it with salt and sugar and adds some natural yeast allowing it to ferment for 90 days oh that's really good it almost tastes like a flavored soju or something it's a little sour a little sweet certainly pretty acidic going down i did my heartburn i need a pepsi ac but otherwise that's really good i'm curious how you got your start in chocolate how old were you when you first tried chocolate for the first time do you remember oh my god stop staring at my teeth mr lau started his cacao farm just 10 years ago he didn't even know cacao could be grown in vietnam since he's 10 years old there is an american soldier give him some chocolate and some milo really now he's taking care of 400 cacao trees even intercropping with coconut trees oh it smells like here yeah chicken it's chicken poop imported from belgium are you serious can we eat it raw yes oh oh oh the reveal whoa let's try it out yeah let's try cheers [Music] it's sweet and sour on the outside i'm really bitter in this region the best time to harvest cacao beans is from october to may after the pods are cracked open and the seeds expelled they must begin the fermentation process within six hours how long does it have to ferment here from five to six days the chocolate that we're going to be tasting later how is it affected by this fermentation process depends on several aspects but if you over fermented it they don't have the very rich smell in the aromas of chocolate after fermentation the beans are sun-dried for up to 10 days before they're sent to the factory the flavor can vary from bean to bean or even from batch to batch so how do you know if this bitter little bean is gonna make some good chocolate [Music] oh that's the second best high you can get that's good meet vincent maru he and this guy sam maruta founded meru a dark chocolate manufacturer that produces and sells bean to bar products this is actually an amazing moment because these are essentially 100 fermented which is really really difficult to do taste it from the beginning these guys hunted down the best cacao varieties throughout vietnam creating six different recipes based off cacao in six different regions a little bit sour a little sourness yeah rich nutty enjoyable bitterness a bit of vanilla in mine their subjectivity but also each one is a bit different these cacao beans right here i've heard these are among some of the top rated in the world but how does that come to be because he was already doing good quality cacao but it wasn't recognized so we met mr lao and he was excited because we were actually making a product that he could taste we sent some samples last year to the the world's largest chocolate show and so he came with us to paris not knowing that he would eventually become one of the winners considered one of the top 15 cacao fermenters in the world so this is a special cacao [Music] set me free next these processed beans make a three hour journey to the baruch factory in the bustling city of saigon [Music] now [Music] how do you transport this chocolate in vietnam this country is so hot the number one challenge is the heat so we have refrigerated trucks that come here we are very careful with the shipping this factory produces over 20 different chocolate products we can make 15 tons a month metric tons are in mexico the cow was being exported and it was never being seen so it just needed someone to take another look at it i'm assuming you come from a long lineage of chocolate makers yes absolutely not my business partner and i when we created maru one of the most exciting things is we had so much to learn because we were not from chop we moved across the country we made chocolate in this kitchen and we used an oven we used a blender the beans that we tasted that night and as chocolate lovers we had never tasted anything like it convince us to go into chocolate step one roasting the beans go straight from the warehouse through a pipeline to this roasting machine it's the same machine as a coffee roaster it's just that it's been modified for cacao inside a spinning drum keeps the beans moving while hot air circulates through this process is known as convection heating after roasting the beans must be quickly cooled so they don't continue to cook we need to cool it as quickly as possible this is crucial for developing the chocolate notes step 2 cracking and winnowing this machine's job is to separate the shell and the nibs cacao nibs are the crushed bits of cacao bean inside the shell the shells are quickly broken into pieces while the nibs are separated and sorted into these buckets since the shells are lighter the machine simply blows them away the shells are sent back to the farmers to use as mulch but the nibs are categorized into different sizes yeah because that makes it more efficient to separate but are big nibs used for anything different than small nibs no absolutely not it's the same material step 3 grinding these heavy rolling stones grind the nibs while generating friction thus releasing cacao butter creating a thick liquidy consistency within three hours [Music] from here if you want cacao powder and cacao butter the liquid cacao can be pressed to separate each material what are some other ingredients that you're using a lot of cacao is our main ingredient because we make a dark chocolate which has sugar 20 to 30 is added to the cacao to make our chocolate step 4 tempering and molding is this like you would temper an old samurai sword yeah essentially we're tempering chocolate like a samurai sword where we're using temperature to harden this liquid chocolate mixture is heated to a temperature of 122 degrees then cooled to just under 86 degrees then it's increased slightly once more so it can be applied to the molds cacao butter takes on six different crystal shapes based on temperature so we know at a certain temperature we're gonna get a type five crystal and so when we see a nice shiny chocolate we know it's well tempered after molding the bars head through a cooling tunnel the finished bars head to the packaging room where the bars are weighed and wrapped in the appropriate packaging oh this is great really incredible to see how it's made i think it was always kind of a mystery to me i knew beans were involved that's about all i knew but to see the transformation it makes me appreciate chocolate so much more it's so extraordinary for such a natural seemingly simple product but there's so much that goes into it that you might not ever guess so there is a magical quality to cacao into chocolate there are very few other things on this planet that make so many people excited i can only think of one cheese really about 20 of these products are exported while the rest are sold here in vietnam much of it makes its way to my son maru their flagship store we've made it to the chapel it should be mr lau has made the three-hour trek from his farm just to join us but first i need to finally get a taste of the chocolate beauties i've been staring at all day okay so the first thing is to smell it there you go give it a smell and then the color the texture and then you bite into it but don't chomp on it and just let the aromas kind of fill your palate dark chocolate can be choppy it can lack that softness that tenderness and so this has all the best parts of dark chocolate while still being moist at the end of the notes i feel some sour there's a bit of spice right dry tropical fruit so we have another region here this is lamdong province known mostly for its coffee it looks exactly the same it smells lighter yep not as fragrant it contain coconut right you're right there's a little bit of coconut taken i should say something i think the average person would not be able to tell a huge difference okay but for me who is also an average person maybe go back to the tiny more friendly definitely more sour i taste that now almost metallic no i mean not that the more you take some time with it then you notice the differences if you just chomp through it which is my habit mason maru is more than a shop selling sweets it's an immersive confectionary magic carpet ride they've got it all from chocolate bars to inventive pastries she's my lover chef chef chef chef chef pastry chef pastry chef pastry chef stephanie yes this looks gorgeous this is a mesomaru tiramisu this is stephanie she worked three years as a pastry chef in a three-star michelin rated restaurant in london now she's here developing new desserts but even more developing a new generation of highly skilled pastry badasses wow such a satisfying experience super creamy just a touch of you know chocolate and coffee are kind of best friends they're meant to be together they're in the bean gang vietnamese coffee from it's tender medium rare stephanie will be whipping up three different desserts even though lao makes a significant contribution to the flavors of this place he's yet to try any of the items hitting our table today oh there he is he's coming please thank you guys have you been in this shop before oh yeah first time we've been here well let's dig in this is the moose right here it's very creative first up mug moose the mug is made of a soft chocolate cookie on the inside shortbread and chocolate mousse sprinkle in cashew nut and cacao nibs add caramel and sweet whipped cream then top it with cashew powder and more chocolate nibs on the side icing sugar sprinkled on chocolate shortbread um you ruined the cake i ruined it but my bite looks fantastic are you ready we all have the perfect bite let's go for it bowl hi bye yo boom [Music] wow it's like the chocolate bar in moose form so it's so soft airy creamy but it has all those complex notes that you taste in his bars he also feel really happy when having those pies you have such a special role in this whole chocolate making process for you what is it like seeing the final product very happy and proud when seeing his cat cow material had a very beautiful display beautiful packaging and make those very delicious cake let's move on to our next dessert right here sir it's called the classic opera [Music] the classic opera has multiple layers of biscuit jacon and coffee ganache a mixture of cream and chocolate it has some cookies on top are these cookies these are little macaroons sweet spongy cake nice layers that kind of break apart in a very pleasing way in your mouth i love both yeah yeah this here is the chocolate tart take a look it starts with a shortbread tart shell a mix of chocolate biscuits and chocolate ganache add chocolate chantilly and cashew nut finally mini brownies with icing sugar on top oh and a little hat why not [Music] more of like the dark chocolate feeling sweetness mixed with bitterness creamy nice crust oh this is so much sweet i'm gonna have a heart attack after this besides the bitterness of the chocolate it has some salty taste in it so he prefer this one these days i'm curious what motivates you to get up to get out there and to keep improving your craft each day when he was a high school student he has his mentor talk to him when you do anything you must do it passionately since then he's always kept update with the new thing try to adapt to the new world oh dogs is the same thing with fish and for those cacao partially is financial things support his family and another thing is his passion about the cacao growing um the cacao that helped other farmers too helps other farmers his family is the one that collects cacao from other farmers in his province thank you for taking the long ride all the way up here just so we could eat dessert together for me absolutely worth it it was an honor to get to learn more about your life and your work and then to try the end product with you in person like this thank you so much for me this was always something i took for granted i am in awe of its complexity someone long ago figured out that this bitter bean must be picked fermented ground and mixed with sugar in order to make what is now the most commonly eaten sweet around the globe the fact that these days anyone from just about any country can get their hands on a chocolate bar is a modern day miracle [Music] welcome to the best ever merch store where you can check out our brand new designs best ever bandanas in black white and red the please send nudes hoodie pillow soft fabric with a quality custom graphic inlay and our street food around the world graphic tee we're now shipping everywhere around the world just visit shopbestoverfood.com or click the link in the description below to get your new merch today a piece boom and so that's chocolate and that's how it works from seed to dessert to diabetes we did it check out han's youtube channel called han around there she's doing a ton of wine tasting and wine suggesting everything you want to learn about wine in vietnamese with english subtitles it's there for you guys that is it for this one thank you so much for watching we'll see you next time a piece but you didn't say it can you say it a peace [Music] you

Channel: Best Ever Food Review Show

Views: 1,707,998

Rating: 4.9408078 out of 5

Keywords: best ever food review show, befrs team, sonny side, vietnam, saigon, asian food factory, asia chocolate factory, south east asian country, MAISON MAROU, CACAO FARM, MAROU chocolate factory, chocolate, where to find chocolate shop, how chocolate is made, how to make chocolate, how to produce mass chocolate, CACAO WINE

Id: 6COiielDuhc

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2020