It’s a rare individual who doesn’t like chocolate. The promise of it can make an unruly child behave, melt an angry heart or coax a smile out of a miser. The dark variety has even been shown to be beneficial to health.
And can any special day be thought of without chocolate? It is everywhere and available in a multitude of tasty tidbits.
But it was not always so. Just a few hundred years ago only royalty could enjoy the distinctive flavor of the cocoa, or cacao, bean product.
While cacao trees have been cultivated since at least 1100 B.C. in what is now called Latin America it was not until the Spanish conquest of Mexico that chocolate was known to the outside world. In Mexico the beans were actually used as currency. As a beverage it was bitter and its consumption was limited to the upper classes of Aztec society.
Thanks to a Dutch family, the Van Houten’s, who invented a machine in the 1800’s to process raw chocolate, and with the addition of milk and sugar, the delicacy eventually became a worldwide favorite.
Three thousand years and an industrial revolution later and chocolate as it we know it is here. Hershey’s, Mars, Nestle’s are all big time manufacturers whose products are as familiar to us as the names of our best friends. But they are the mass-market distributors and those who crave only the best and purest of the mouthwatering goodies have to look to the exotic suppliers. Most of the really good stuff, it is generally agreed, comes from Belgium. But not all.
Hidden away on what is commonly known as “Suicide Alley”, a street paralleling Highway 58 in Ginowan, is an enterprise whose specialty is the creation of top quality chocolate candies.
Fashion Candy began in 1975 as a one-person business. Okinawan native Ritsuko Chinen had a fascination with chocolate, researched how candy was made and started selling edible leis. As her interest and involvement intensified she sought further knowledge by visiting chocolate makers in Europe, particularly Belgium, and learned the finer points of the industry.
She now employs over a hundred people in her factory and shop. No visitors are allowed in the actual kitchen, which occupies the upper stories above the stylish boutique. She guards her secrets and methods rigidly, so only the results are evident.
According to Sayaka Nakamura, who is apparently the only English speaking employee at the store, Ms Chinen is known as “The Leader and is responsible for the creative side of the candy making.” She has a fulltime packaging designer on staff that comes up with the distinctive wrappings and seasonal displays.
Customers of the little shop can measure the time of year by the ever-changing décor. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween all have their iconic treats and Christmas is no exception. Gift wrapped chocolate snowmen, Santa’s and pretty presents fill the place with holiday cheer.
But Fashion Candy, who sells its products under the label ‘Ma Kukuru’, which means, according to Ms Nakamura, “a bit of serenity,” is not limited to chocolate. Besides candy they offer scrumptious cakes, special occasion cards and decorations, and many varieties of the traditional Okinawan chinsukou cookies.
To find this unique shop take Highway 58 to the MCAS Futenma gate intersection, marked Oyama, and almost immediately take the road south paralleling 58 for about five blocks. Fashion Candy is a two story white building on the right.
Their website, all in Japanese, is www.fashioncandy.co.jp and their phone is (098) 897-5194
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