Milk, Yogurt, Chocolate As Medicine . A Japan - Taiwan History

Chocolate Mole Sauce - @Yucatán Mexico

'Mongolian' yogurt @ Beijing 2019

Grape beer (traditional) available but I didn't order. 

Best honey and best matsutake I have had. @Yunnan

Homemade matsutake (songrong - 松茸) and homemade honey are central-southwest Yunnan household items.

Notes from 2019 - 

The Mongols collected four beverages -

These four fermented beverages are: grape wine from the vineyards of Tarim, the kara kumis (fermented mare's milk) reserved for the nobles, mead (bal = Turkish-Mongolian name for honey) and the rice or millet beer, a speciality from nearby China.
- I was seeing 'Mongolian Yogurt' everywhere in Bejing 2019 - and later I realized it means 'yogurt sweetened with honey'.

- The story I was told: Yogurt in Beijing was a Mongols accidental product when they stored milk under horse saddles, travelled and turned sour.
-The most delicious yogurt I have had was in Shangri-la prepared by the Tibetan.
- The best honey I had was in Kunming Yunnan by the Lahu host.

 - Both honey and yogurt making without doubts Yunnan thousands of years LONG tradition.

Dairy Farm History  in Taiwan - Taipei

The first dairy ranch in Taiwan,  柊牧場, was established in 1896 during the Japanese colonial era to supply milk to Japanese soldiers. 

Yogurt

Commercial "sour milk with honey" @Beijing 

Homemade yogurt  vendors common scene

@Shangri-la Yunnan

Notes - 

In 1908, yogurt was introduced to the field of medicine in Japan, when medical researchers took yogurt bacteria imported from France to make yogurt and used it to treat diabetes with good results.

Yogurt was introduced to Taiwan by Japanese in 1912 for medicinal treatment - supplies only at pharmacy. 

Dairy Expert Anne Mendelson Input 

It's amazing to think Taiwanese ate yogurt some 30 years before Americans. In 1912 Taiwan, major yogurt customers were hospital patients. 

Dairy Expert Anne Mendelson:
"1912 would have been just when Elie Metchnikoff's claims for yogurt as the secret of longevity were hitting the headlines in France, the UK, most of industrialized Europe, and the US. *I'm certain that this was the reason for interest in it in Taiwan.* Early commercial versions based on the microorganism (Lactobacillus bulgaricus) that Metchnikoff thought had the biggest effect on rescuing human colons from hordes of deadly bacteria were unpleasantly sour. The M.-inspired yogurt health vogue dwindled after the 19-teens (though it was partly replaced by an acidophilus-milk vogue). But eventually immigrants to the US from Armenia, Turkey, Greece, and other places where yogurt was a real part of the diet brought better skills of making it, with bacterial combinations that produced a more mellow flavor. A few companies flourished in a small way before World War. But the pioneer manufacturer was Isaac Carasso, a Sephardic Greek Jew who founded "Danone" company in Spain. His son Daniel (for whom Danone/Dannon was named) brought the business to New York in 1942. Eventually it was built into an empire. Yogurt didn't begin crossing over from health-food circles to supermarkets until the late 1960s or early 1970s, when Dannon and its competitors started producing a spectrum of fruit-flavored versions sweetened highly enough to overcome American resistance to "sour milk"."

Chocolate 

Notes - 

Historically, chocolate (cacao) has been used for over 4,000 years as medicine by Mesoamerican cultures and later in Europe to treat anemia, fatigue, digestive issues, tuberculosis, fever, and gout. 

Chocolate first arrived on Japan's shores in 1797, brought by Dutch traders in the form of a drink. It was initially seen as an expensive luxury and was enjoyed only by the elite. 

Chocolate has been utilized for medicinal or health-focused purposes in Japan, ranging from historical usage as a tonic to modern "functional" foods designed for specific health benefits.

Cocoa in Taiwan (Morinaga)

Due to high demand for chocolate in Japan, and Taiwan under Japanese rule 1895-1945, Morinaga came to Taiwan in 1927 to find a land where he could grow cocoa, and make the company self-sufficient chocolate manufacturer in the country. 

His successor 大串松次 Matsuji Ogushi continued the cocoa mission arriving in Taiwan in 1937 and set up an experimental farm and research institute in Pintung area dedicated to cocoa plantation. (See my Cocoa-in-Taiwan post HERE. )

Royal Chocolate in London (1662)

Chocolate royal and wholesome status in England at Hampton Court, London.