We cook with grandma's brown sugar, pass forward the warmth and love of
family.
The famous Chinese doctor and herbalist Li
Shi-Zhen of Ming dynasty of ancient China, who wrote "Brown sugar is warm
in nature" , in his famous book《Compendium
of Materia Medica》.
Nowadays, we care so much about the health
issues. Brown sugar is a kind of not completely refined sugar, which is not too
sweet and keep the minerals and vitamins .For the founder of Hei Tang Dau, he
chose to devote himself to the business of brown sugar, not only because it is
a healthy food, but also the more significant thing, the unforgettable
"grandma's love". His grandma taught him "the altruism" and
"social responsibilities" by her actions, which made him feel
obligated to introduce Taiwanese brown sugar to the world.
A simple cup of brown sugar water(soup), which filled with grandma's love
toward her grandchild.
"I want to inherite the love of my
grandma, who made brown sugar from sugar canes, and pass it forward to the next
generation!" Everytime the founder talks about his old grandma, his
expression and tone becomes gender and smiling immediately. As a first born
child, the founder was strictly taught by parents since he was a little child.
For a while, he even suspected that if he is not related to his parents, and
was afraid to go home. Fortunately his grandpa and grandma love him so much,
everytime he felt unfair, he fled to his grandma's house. Although just some
simple warm greetings, a patting on the head and a cup of sweet brown sugar
water, could make him feel safe and relaxed more than anything.
Grandma Gao was born in Chiayi, where was the third large sugar company in Taiwan in Japanese occupied
period. The founder said, "At that time, sugar was luxuries and only for
rich people. Grandma was born in a poor family, but children at that time
loved to steal the sugar canes from the fields of the Taiwanese sugar company,
and the family would have made them into brown sugar. Thus grandma have learned
the traditional steps of making brown sugar. "When grandma was young, she
used to cook sugar cane juice with average pots. In order to make a little of
brown sugar, it took 2~3 hours of mixing, caring for the heat, until the sugar
cane juice became brown sugar molasses of a color of amber. At that time, the
whole house was filled with natural fragrance of brown sugar, it's really
good!". As the founder is soaking in the memories of the scenes where
grandma was cooking brown sugar molasses, he smiles and discloses that when he
was 14 years old, grandma taught him the tips of how to cook the molasses, and
let him actually try it, he found it was really hard, he considered cooking
molasses a difficult job at that time!
Grandma taught him, "Being a man, you
must always put the social responsibilities on your shoulders." The
founder always keeps these words in his heart.
However, behind the scenes of warm
fragrance of brown sugar, and happiness between grandparents and a grandson,
The founder faced a broken original family when he was only 14 years old. The
founder had to drop out school and started to work to earn a living, he felt
truly helpless. At the meantime, he hoped to become stronger and can protect
his old grandparents. For that, it almost led him astray.
The founder said sentimentally and
gratefully about his mad young days, "I've met some bad friends, nearly
gone astray. It made my grandma shocked and angry, but she had never punished
me for that. She forgave me like she always has done."
Grandma Gao is a religious Christian, who
has been a volunteer in Mackay memorial hospital for more than 30 years. Before
she retired from her job, her knees were badly damaged and often in great pain,
however, she never gives up the volunteer job. At that time, the founder was
just a rebellious adolescent, once he questioned his grandma doubtfully,
"Why do you always care about so much about others, and put their needs in
front of your owns? " Grandma taught me, "Being a man, you must put
the social responsibilities on your shoulders. As long as you can, you should
do more things, and help more people. I've never hoped to gain any rewards, but
if there are such things, I hope the rewards could happen on my children and
grandchildren. My life would be worth it!" The founder said exactly what
his grandma taught him, word by word. He confessed, what his grandma told him
is imprinted in his heart, and impacted his life principles until now.
Hei Tang Dau would like to provide the best brown sugar in Taiwan and
export to the whole world.
Now, the founder is a father of 3 children,
he has tasted almost every kinds of best drinks and cuisines, but somehow in
his head, he could never forget grandma's brown sugar water, and brown
sugar braised pork.
One day he had an opportunity to research
and interview the markets of brown sugar of all big retailers. He accidentally
realized that the famous Okinawa brown sugar, about 80-90 percent of its
ingredients are from Taiwan. And Taiwanese people consider Okinawa brown sugar
as high-end brand, which made him feel "socially responsible" for
letting people know. He came up with the idea of creating a brand of Taiwanese
brown sugar, and hoped to share the excellent flavors of brown sugar, which he
has tasted since he was a child, to Taiwanese people and more than that, to the
whole world. Let everybody fall in love with "Taiwanese brown sugar".
"Taiwanese people are just like my
grandmother, we always export the best products to other countries. But I hope
this time, Hei Tang Dau can share the concept of family love, not only provide
the best brown sugar in our country, but also export to the whole world, let
the world see the value of Taiwanese brown sugar, let everyone feel the family
warmth and love from a cup of brown sugar water, or the dishes cooked with
brown sugar. Just like me in the childhood." The founder talked about the
mission of Hei Tang Dau and why he created this company.
We have all the significant international certificates from ISO、HACCP、Halal to A.A. anti-additive.
The founder feels obligated to take
"the social responsibilities" spontaneously, create the factories
almost in a level of medicine manufacturing, purchase the most advanced
automatic equipment, and establish quality control laboratories for testing
bacteria pollution. Moreover, we applied spontaneously for all the significant
international third-party certificates, from international certificate of
management systems: ISO 22000 and HACCP, certificate of Halal: Halal and MUI(Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the Indonesian concil of Ulama),
to 3-stars certificate of A.A. (anti-additive). "In our future plans of
upcoming years, to apply for SQF, the international certificate of food
manufacturing in a diamond level, which includes strict requirements of food
hygiene, safty and quality. "I believe, this will undoubtedly defy the
manufacturing standards of Taiwanese brown sugar!" the founder said
proudly.
Because he knows certainly that the goal of
Hei Tang Dau, which is to export Taiwanese brown sugar to the whole world, and
in order to become an international manufacturer, the first step is to
establish new factories, with high level of manufacturing processes and
products meet the standards of international certificates. While bringing in
advanced equipment and factories, the founder also devoted himself in
researching the best proportion of brown sugar. We utilize saccharose combined
with first refined brown sugar instead of the usual way, which is utilizing
saccharose combined with molasses in most of the brown sugar factories. We
found the formula which can recreate traditional flavors of grandma's handmade
brown sugar. Sweet but not too sweet, tasty, and keeping the rich minerals and
nutrition of natural brown sugar. Many years of researching and experiments,
made the founder truly a master of brown sugar.
There are 3 steps for test the quality of the brown sugar:
smelling, observing its form and tasting.
The founder shares his methods to test the quality of
brown sugar generously: firstly, smelling. Sugar spoils or goes sour easily, if
the sugar smells different, or the fragrance of sugar can't stay stable when
shaking it, which means the quality of this sugar is not good. Secondly,
observing its form. Many people thought the thicker brown sugar molasses are,
the purer they are. Actually, it's completely misunderstandings. The artificial
additives make the molasses think. If the ingredients of brown sugar molasses
are pure, they will become liquid like water. Once the sugar content is higher
than 80%, brown sugar molasses will start to crystallize, and will become not
ideal for drinking; That's why Hei Tang Dau insists to keep the sugar content
at about 78%, to maintain the purity and let it become easy to drink, and our
brown sugar power keeps the tradition of crushing by hands, which makes the
form of the brown sugar irregular. Lastly, tasting. Traditional brown sugar is
a kind of not completely refined sugar. It keeps more nutrition, and lower
sweetness, and the nutrition produces original fragrance of caramelized sugar
canes during cooking, therefore, good brown sugar water tastes sweet but not
too sweet, and with stable fragrance.
We try to cook with brown sugar instead of sugar,
breaking the limits of cooking.
"Brown sugar is, not only making the healthy
drinks, but also an alternative to refined sugar for cooking, like my grandma's
specialty dish, brown sugar braised pork, super delicious!" The founder is
confident to break the limits of how people use brown sugar, and make brown
sugar to be a part of daily cooking. This is also the new misson of Hei Tang
Dau. Starting from the inherited flavors of grandma's brown sugar and social
responsibilities, Hei Tang Daunot only creates a new standard of made-in-Taiwan
brown sugar, but also recreates the authentic flavors which grandma approves by
utilizing the modern equipment. Furthermore, it breaks the images of brown
sugar which you and I can think of! We are looking forward to the future, Hei
Tang Dauwill hit the world, make everyone impressed for the excellent flavors,
by original recipes without boundaries. And Taiwanese people can say it
proudly, "This is exactly, the flavors of my grandma's brown
sugar!"