Indian bean to bar chocolate makers have slowly but steadily carved a niche for themselves in the overall chocolate market. With cacao beans sourced from their own organic farms or from select ones located across Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and controlling the entire process of manufacturing and packaging to sales, these Indian brands have made chocolate as luxurious and flavoursome as the best wine. Here is our favourite seven best brands.
Chitra'm Craft Chocolates
Handpicked cacao from Kerala, infused with popular Indian flavours are what makes the crafted chocolates of this Coimbatore based brand a hot favourite. Besides, they are known to use alternate sugars like palm sugar, natural unprocessed cane sugar, coconut sugar and jaggery. Their Mango Lassi Milk Chocolate has won them many international awards.
Kocoatrait
Helmed by co-founder Nitin Chordia, India’s first certified chocolate taster (from the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting), you never know what amazing flavour is going to turn up next. Like their signature 70% dark air roasted chocolate sprinkled with sustainable desert salt of Rajasthan and sweetened with Khandsari sugar. What’s more, the brand insists on a zero waste lifestyle. For example, according to the company, the chocolate wrapper is upcycled using reclaimed cotton from garment factories and reclaimed cocoa shells (a byproduct of the roasting process) making it biodegradable, compostable and recyclable.
Mason & Co
Said to be India’s first bean to bar chocolate brand, this brand began its journey from Auroville. They have built up a skilled all-female workforce after training the local village women. Apart from chocolate bars, they also have a range of baking chocolate, chocolate spreads, drinking chocolate, etc. You can also get some of their special gift sets for family and friends back home.
Naviluna Artisan Chocolate
With a ‘terroir-centric’ approach to chocolate making, this much awarded Mysore-based company is one of the first Indian brands to adopt the bean to bar procedure. Their diverse flavours and attractive packaging were an instant hit.
Pascati
This artisan brand sources its cacao beans from select plantations in Kerala and oversees the entire process to achieve complex flavours. You have to check out their fruit-based inclusion bars such as Raspberry Hibiscus, Blueberry Walnut, Orange Cinnamon Hazelnut or centre-filled inclusion bars such as Guava, Chilli and Sea Salt, Paan, Strawberry and Honey, etc.
Paul and Mike
This much awarded Indian artisan chocolate brand believes ‘farming and fermenting cocoa is both art as well as science’. They cultivate and ferment the cocoa at their own farms in Kochi and Coimbatore. Their mind-boggling range will leave you spoilt for choice. With prior appointment, you can also go for a farm-to-bar tour and meet their chocolate makers.
Soklet
They not only make handcrafted artisan chocolates but also a range of chocolate based creative products. According to the company, the cacao is grown as an intercrop along with coconut, nutmeg, pepper and banana creating a melange of interdependent fauna - the cornerstone of permaculture - adding to the flavour nuances of the cacao beans. The flavours have an amazing variety from Desi Rabdi to Bhut Jolokia Chilli.
