I am a chocoholic. I’m very fond of chocolate and eat or drink some every day. In fact, I usually start my day with some chocolate, and I was enjoying some really-dark chocolate when I started writing this blog post ten hours later in the early evening.
If world civilization collapsed and global trade suffered, I would not miss most of the luxuries I take for granted, but I would miss chocolate. The World Atlas says, “Unsurprisingly, most of the top 10 cocoa-producing countries come from warm, wet climates similar to where the bean originated.”
You might not find this surprising, but the countries that consume the most chocolate do not produce it.
How about China? If world trade suffered because of the COVID-19 pandemic, would the Chinese miss chocolate?
Chocolate wasn’t introduced to China until the 1980s. China Business Review reports, “Thirty years ago, most Chinese had never eaten a piece of chocolate; their taste for chocolate was ready to be shaped by whichever company entered the country with a winning combination of quality, marketing savvy, and manufacturing and distribution acumen. For chocolate companies, China was the next great frontier—a market of almost limitless potential to be unlocked through a battle between the world’s leading chocolate companies for the hearts, minds, taste buds, and ultimately the wallets of China’s consumers.”
Those chocolate companies failed.
“Even today, the amount of chocolate sold in China is relatively small, accounting for less than 2 percent of total global consumption. Most Chinese would not be able to find chocolate in their vicinity even if they were willing to buy it.”
Why chocolate never caught on in China should be obvious. The favorite dessert in China, Japan, and most, if not all of Southeast Asia is mochi, and that is made from rice.
Mochi is the most popular dessert in the world, but only because there are more Asians than any other ethnic group on the planet. Caucasians (found mostly in North America, Russia, and Europe) only make up 11.5% (850,000,000) of the world’s 7.8 billion people. The Han Chinese, by themselves, represent more than 20%, and that is not counting the populations of Japan and the other countries in that area of the world that love mochi.
Taste Atlas says, “Mochi, the tiny cakes made out of glutinous rice, are an important part of Japanese cuisine and culture (and the rest of East and Southeast Asia). The preparation of mochi starts with a time-consuming process of pounding boiled or steamed rice, usually the glutinous mochigome variety until it forms into a thick and homogenous paste. …The most common confectionery is referred to as daifuku-round cakes filled with different ingredients such as the traditional red bean paste, strawberries, or ice cream. … Due to its chewy texture, it is important to be extra careful and attentive while eating mochi and to take tiny bites of this glutinous treat.”
What ten countries produce the most rice?
The answer is revealed in the last video. If global trade suffers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia will not have to give up their favorite dessert. I live in the United States, and I am not a mochi fan.
What is your favorite dessert?
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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