Pure indulgence: How Indian chocolate makers are using unusual ingredients to create esoteric flavours

C’mon admit it. You have dreamt of a chocolate factory ever since you read Roald Dahl’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid. After all, it’s quite impossible to resist the allure of all that chocolate. Well, dreams do come true. Head over to Hyderabad’s posh Banjara Hills and the Manam Chocolate Karkhana to channelise your inner Willy Wonka.

Launched just a few weeks ago on Independence Day, the Karkhana (factory) is an experiential centre, complete with a chocolate waterfall that wants you to get lost in its world of decadence. From bars, truffles, barks, cookies, brownies, macarons, ice creams and cakes to drinking chocolate and more, Manam, that means ‘We’ in Telugu, has 45 categories with more than 250 products that range from snacking items to desserts. Think malt chocolate truffles made with 43 per cent malted milk single origin West Godavari chocolate, blueberry dragees (bite-sized confectionary with a hard outer shell) coated in yogurt, creamy white chocolate and toasted sesame or a caramelised cacao nib chocolate brownie made with 82 per cent dark chocolate from single origin Dominican Republic beans.

Set up by Chaitanya Muppala whose family runs a chain of traditional Indian sweets and namkeen stores called Almond House in Hyderabad, Manam Chocolates is based on the belief that your chocolates are only as good as your beans. Muppala works with over 100 farmers in the West Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh and has built a new model for cacao processing. “We want to interpret this magical ingredient in every way possible,” says Muppala. “We wanted to represent ourselves as Indians without reducing ourselves to the stereotypes of kesar, elaichi, badam,” he adds. “The idea behind the Karkhana is to bring the world of premium fine luxury exponential retail to the world of craft, which is typically really small artisanal producers,” explains Muppala describing the 10,000 sq. ft space.

While Muppala is probably the latest entrant to the world of craft chocolate (chocolates made from fresh raw cacao beans sourced transparently and turned into chocolates by small-scale chocolate makers) and is manufacturing at a slightly larger scale, he is not the only one. There are several entrepreneurs across the country creating craft chocolate by experimenting with unusual ingredients.

Take for example, Devansh Ashar, who runs the Mumbai-based bean-to-bar brand Pascati. “I started manufacturing chocolate in my bedroom in 2014 after watching a YouTube video,” says the former chef with a background in mixology.

After sharing his creations with family and friends and getting positive feedback at farmers’ markets, he decided to turn it into a business. Pascati is India’s first USDA Organic and Fair Trade Compliant chocolate brand. Today the brand is available at exclusive organic food stores in most metro cities and also places like Goa, Ahmedabad and Rishikesh. While most sales come from offline, it is also ordered online on their website. A large chunk of their business comes from corporate gifting where they customise the chocolate and the packaging. Ashar primarily works with cacao from Kerala which is fruity and robust in nature. He does interesting flavours like orange, cinnamon and hazelnut, which uses natural orange oil and is dusted with cinnamon powder from Kerala. Then there is blueberry walnut which has blueberry natural oil and walnuts from Kashmir. Another popular flavour is raspberry hibiscus. “I was a bartender earlier where one is always experimenting with what flavour profile works best with which particular cocktail. So the raspberry hibiscus was actually inspired by one of the cocktails I created,” he smiles.

Ashar says none of his chocolates have any kind of emulsifiers or preservatives and he makes around 8,000 bars a month in the off season and between 24,000 and 30,000 in the peak season. Ashar believes in sustainability and two-thirds of his power requirement comes from solar energy.

For Chennai-based couple Poonam and L. Nitin Chordia, sustainability is the cornerstone of their venture Kocoatrait, which is aiming to be India’s first zero-waste chocolate. From using completely recyclable materials for packaging to getting it designed by an organisation for the differently-abled, Kocoatrait is a chocolate for a conscious consumer. “Cacao is a very unsustainable raw material and there is no running away from that. So we wanted to do more to ensure that the chocolate did not harm the planet,” says Chordia who is India’s first certified cacao and chocolate taster.

The couple also runs Cocoashala, a training and incubation centre for those wanting to get into the craft chocolate business. They have trained around 137 people till now.

Kocoatrait offers some very interesting flavours. “Our idea is simple: we don’t want to make anything that someone else is already making,” says Chordia. So you get chocolates that are flavoured with jasmine or green chilli or even masala chai!

Go ahead and indulge in Indian craft chocolates knowing that they are sustainable and organic. After all, no one can eat just one.

@smitabw