TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s chocolate products have shone at the Academy of Chocolate awards for 2022 for their unique taste, which incorporates local tea and other agricultural products.

Meiho University in Pingtung County took three silvers in the Chocolate Drinks Category. Evergreen Laurel Hotel Taichung claimed one gold, three silvers, and two bronzes in Filled Chocolates, as well as one silver in the Flavored Chocolate Bars category.

Locally-grown tea appears to be a key ingredient in the winning formulas of the two chocolatiers.

Meiho University used aged oolong tea, Alishan’s Jin Xuan tea, and Sun Moon Lake black tea to impress the jury. The secret of tea-infused chocolate drinks lies in charcoal roasting of the tea leaves, which better brings out the flavors, said Yu Tien-fu (喻天福), who teaches at the university’s Department of Hospitality.

Evergreen Laurel Hotel Taichung, a branch of one of the biggest hotel chains in Taiwan, spent eight months marrying various Taiwanese ingredients with chocolate of different cacao percentages to achieve the most ideal flavors.

The elements in its award-winning products include high-mountain oolong tea, Tieguanyin tea from Taipei’s Muzha district, Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation’s sake kasu, and dried strawberries from Miaoli’s Dahu township.

Chang Chi-hung (張志宏), a pastry chef at the hotel, said further effort will be invested in creating more chocolate innovations that use indigenously-grown cacao beans. Taiwan’s cacao beans are special in that they have a smoked plum-like sour taste that many foreign experts find impressive, he said.