Bunzoo’s Nama Chocolate – The original ‘melting’ chocolate

Born in 1949 in Iiyama, Nagano, Kobayashi Masakazu studied at a Tokyo confectionary  school.
He continued to further his studies for several years at Western confectionary stores  in Kobe and then Chigasaki, eventually opening his own shop in 1982 after 10 years of  training at the age of 32.  

Taking place during the Showa era of Japan when the development of chocolate was on the rise, they wondered whether it was possible to create a chocolate that smoothly melted in the mouth rather than it being just hard and oily.
From here, the steps towards making this product began where difficult hurdles appeared along the way, the most difficult being  wanting to bring out the rich flavour to its fullest potential.  

With it being a delicate process, small factors like sudden temperature changes affected the taste negatively.
There were a lot of sleepless nights trying to come up with a solution. 
Without there being any sort of textbooks or guides as this was something that had never been made before, they relied solely on their own creativity and intuition. Through multiple phases of trial and error they finally landed on the answer.
It was all temperature control.
By slowly melting the chocolate over a long period of time, then adding in the fresh cream and followed by cooling the mixture, the raw flavour of the chocolate is preserved.

In 1986, the world’s first ‘raw’ chocolate was invented.
By 2009, they opened their own confectionary business named Bunzoo.
Still to this day, with the vast popularity and their own love for creating chocolate, Kobayashi Masakazu is still an active pastry chef as they continue to create these products all by hand.