What Does Grown-in-Singapore Chocolate Taste Like?
*This article is adapted from * The Straits Times.
SINGAPORE – When I take my first bite of pastry chef Janice Wong’s Singapore single-origin chocolate, I think instantly of tea. Light, sour, fruity, almost citrusy even. It tastes nothing like the rich nutty bars made from Indonesian or Filipino cacao.
Another plate is set down on the table. On it lies a pile of crusty coffee-coloured shards bearing an earthy quality reminiscent of cinnamon. This chocolate, like its fruitier counterpart, was made with cacao grown in Singapore. The main difference is that it was fermented in less humid conditions.
These bars, not yet for sale, are part of the award-winning chef’s ongoing experiment to prove that it is possible for Singapore to produce chocolates made from beans grown, harvested and ground locally.
In 2021, she was given 70 cacao trees a by a friend – and dreamed of planting 930 more. Three years later, more than 500 of these trees have found homes here, despite the Republic’s limited supply of land.
Cacao trees are not planted along Singapore’s streets because it produces hard fruit pods, which can be heavy and cause obstructions when shed along roads and walking paths, says Mr Oh Cheow Sheng, the National Parks Board’s group director of streetscape. These small trees also do not provide enough shade or an appropriate green buffer between the roads and residential areas.
Finding takers for the trees was not easy. But the project has now taken root all around the island: saplings have been planted at restaurants in Dempsey, a church in Dhoby Ghaut, the Belgian ambassador’s residence, private homes in Bukit Timah, and various other locations.
It has taken a lot of time, money and energy, but Wong’s efforts have finally borne fruit – quite literally too. As she walks through a grove of 38 trees lining the perimeter of Spectra Secondary School, she pauses along the way to examine the spherical purple pods that dot some of their branches.
These, she says, were the very first trees she planted at the start of her project to cultivate cacao in Singapore.
“In the beginning, it was really hard. I’d call people and schools and ask if they wanted to adopt a cacao tree, but not a lot of people were keen on the idea because they were worried about pests,” says the 41-year-old chocolatier behind the eponymous dessert brand, which has outlets at Paragon Shopping Centre and Gardens by the Bay.
But there was one person who jumped on board immediately: Mr Tan Teck Hock, 60, principal of Spectra Secondary School.
“He was the one who believed in the project. He saw that it would be a great chance for the students to learn about cacao and chocolate-making,” says Wong.
She provided the trees and split the expenses with the school. They invested around $1,800 each into an irrigation system, soil and fertilisers.
At the start, the trees were obtained from the Philippines and Malaysia. Over the next 1½ years, she and a team of more than 20 volunteers cross-germinated the seeds to cultivate young saplings, which were then planted in the gardens of friends and relatives.
“Nobody really knows how to grow cocoa here. It doesn’t help that it’s not the easiest tree to grow. There are lots of pests and diseases you have to manage, lots of fertilisers you have to prepare.”
Plus, there is climate change to consider. With Singapore’s weather oscillating between scorching and stormy, it is hard to respond quickly to the needs of the trees.
“We have to monitor it closely and pivot when it’s too hot. We constantly have to give it shelter or put shade cloths over it, and that’s very critical because it can wither and dry very quickly.”
Wong estimates that every tree costs around $120 once soil, fertiliser and maintenance costs have been factored in – a pretty hefty price for an investment “you can’t expect any returns from”.
Each sapling takes around three years to grow into a tree, then another five or so months to flower and fruit. They are ready for harvesting once they turn a brownish yellow and produce a hollow sound when knocked.
“But this is a movement that is very meaningful. I think it’s very necessary, especially with the lack of education in Singapore about growing cacao,” she says.
Wong was 30 when she saw a cacao pod for the first time on a farm in Bali. At that point, she had been working as a pastry chef for nearly eight years, but had no idea what the fruit that formed the bedrock of her creative practice looked like, or how it was grown.
In 2019, she took her cacao education a step further by making a 24-hour journey to the Peruvian Amazonia, where she spent 10 days under the tutelage of local farmers.
“It really opened my eyes to the world of cacao. I spent a lot of time with the farmers, understanding more about the varieties of cocoa, and I thought, wow, there’s so much more to chocolate than I realised. And I just wanted to bring all that knowledge back home.”
She does not expect to turn a profit from this project. Selling the trees to partners would defeat the community ethos underpinning her campaign, and the amount of cacao her trees have yielded is insufficient to sustain a commercial enterprise. In six months, she has harvested only about 2kg worth of chocolate.
Some industry leaders have commented that the Singapore-origin bars have not been fermented for long enough – a process that has also proven to be a challenge.
“You have to think out of the box, be creative, even if we cannot ferment cocoa for five days outside because our climate doesn’t allow it, and it rains maybe once every three days,” she says. “We really need to use innovation to be able to ferment and process our cocoa in a different timeline.”
At the moment, it is fermented in a controlled indoor environment at her 2am: dessertbar restaurant.
Though she has yet to decide whether to eventually commercialise her Singapore-origin chocolates, she is exploring ways to give diners here a taste of this home-grown dessert. One possibility, she suggests, is that establishments like Peruvian restaurant Canchita, where some 14 trees are growing, process their own cacao, turning them into chocolate desserts for the public.
In the meantime, she has no plans to ramp up production. On the contrary, she wants to slow down.
“I’ve realised that location is key to the growing of cacao trees, so right now, I’m spending more time identifying the schools that have better maintenance and care to be able to continue this project beyond just five years.”
In general, trees that grow on a slope or other non-waterlogged terrain have a higher chance of survival. They also thrive in the company of fruit trees, such as papaya or banana trees.
A few months ago, she came across a tree that had sprouted more than 100 pods at Spectra Secondary School. It was the first time she realised it might be possible to get a really good yield.
“If we’re able to get one big harvest of 300 pods, that’s easily 12 to 15kg of chocolate.”
So, though she did not initially expect chocolate to become a sustainable crop in Singapore, anything, she is realising, is possible.
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