During the war, cocoa bean imports completely stopped, and chocolate disappeared from the general market in Japan.
However, behind the scenes, engineers at Meiji Seika and Morinaga Seika were ordered to develop a "special functional chocolate" as a top-secret military project.
① For the Northern Front: Non-freezing "Alcohol-infused Soft Chocolate"
This chocolate was developed by Morinaga Seika at the request of the army, specifically for extremely cold regions such as Manchukuo and the Kuril Islands.
Regular chocolate bars harden like stone in temperatures of tens of degrees below zero, making them impossible to chew. Therefore, Morinaga undertook an extraordinary feat: adding a large amount of whiskey (alcohol) to their tube-packaged "soft chocolate."
By utilizing the freezing point depression of alcohol, they created a cold-weather weapon (confectionery) that "doesn't freeze even in extreme cold, and warms the body from the core when eaten"—a win-win situation.
However, behind the scenes, engineers at Meiji Seika and Morinaga Seika were ordered to develop a "special functional chocolate" as a top-secret military project.
① For the Northern Front: Non-freezing "Alcohol-infused Soft Chocolate"
This chocolate was developed by Morinaga Seika at the request of the army, specifically for extremely cold regions such as Manchukuo and the Kuril Islands.
Regular chocolate bars harden like stone in temperatures of tens of degrees below zero, making them impossible to chew. Therefore, Morinaga undertook an extraordinary feat: adding a large amount of whiskey (alcohol) to their tube-packaged "soft chocolate."
By utilizing the freezing point depression of alcohol, they created a cold-weather weapon (confectionery) that "doesn't freeze even in extreme cold, and warms the body from the core when eaten"—a win-win situation.