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Chocolate, for me, is sustenance, romance, fantasy, ruin, therapy, life.

It is due to chocoholics like me that Chaitanya Muppala, founder of Distinct Origins and Manam Chocolates in Hyderabad, says he is in the best profession ever. “I sell something that does not need any selling!” Chaitanya is on a self-proclaimed mission to craft high-quality chocolate from Indian cacao, which incidentally, is yet to be recognised as a ‘fine flavour cacao’. “Indian cacao trees were planted for bulk production of industrial chocolate, optimised for disease resistance, not flavour,” says Muppala, who recently took me on a behind-the-scenes journey of how craft (as opposed to industrial) chocolate is designed.

At Manam’s 10,000 sq ft chocolate ‘Karkhana’ (factory), even as the unmistakable scent of roasting cacao assaults me everywhere, I follow the beans that have arrived from farms in West Godavari after being aged for six to nine months (to develop complexity). At the ‘Karkhana’, they are first roasted in calibrated temperatures to unlock their natural flavour. Each batch of beans has its own unique notes — fruity, salty, sour, and acidic. The beans are custom roasted, according to what the chocolate maker desires. They are then cracked open and winnowed to separate the husk from the nibs. The nibs are milled in rotating chilled cylinders and if a coarser grind is required, they are emptied into a good-old idli grinder and ground for more than 120 hours. This produces a thick mass known as chocolate liquor. This is then taken to the refining room where it is milled in a ball mill to give it that velvety texture. It is then ‘conched’ —  mixed and aerated overnight, which ensures that each particle of cacao solid is suspended in cacao butter to give it consistency. Finally, it is cooled and tempered to create that glossy, snappy piece. This is then presented to the chocolatier, who is at liberty to enrobe it, mould it, craft it, or eat it as is! This, in short, is the bean-to-bar process.

Bean-to-bar

Chaitanya does not like the phrase ‘bean-to-bar’. “It is a misnomer — craft chocolatiers do not make only bars!” Nevertheless, the admittedly overused phrase signals the minute attention to design, right from bean selection to the packaging that craft chocolate demands. It is this focus on design that differentiates craft from industrial and ensures stunning diversity in form and taste — there are thins, barks, spreads, bonbons, clusters and chocolate on tap, while the resident chef Ruby Islam uses her imagination to experiment with all sorts of flavours, from Chakkarkeli bananas to locally grown jackfruit, dried orange and pedda rasalu mangoes. These are then retailed in packages with specially commissioned artwork by visual artist Namrata Kumar.

Essentially, bean-to-bar is where the makers have total control of the entire processing of the chocolate. Most crucially, they do not create from pre-made chocolate, industrial or otherwise. Where the cacao is grown, how it is cleaned, fermented, dried, roasted and then winnowed, churned, mixed, tempered, and ultimately moulded — all make a crucial difference to that little round delight you pop into your mouth. Much like craft beer, artisanal wine and coffee, craft chocolate makers carefully monitor the raw ingredients and produce them in small batches. The aim is to ensure no dip in quality — the primary justification for the premium pricing. For instance, a signature tablet at the outlet costs between Rs 350 and Rs 400 for 80 gm while a box of 5 thins is priced at Rs 150-Rs 200. The more indulgent varieties can cost anything between Rs 700-Rs 800 for a six-piece box.  

Evolving tastes, nascent industry

As part of the experience, I participated in a tasting workshop that was revealing, to put it mildly. As Muppala says: “We have all grown up with the taste of Dairy Milk on our tongues — that milk chocolate is an emotion, it’s nostalgia and we will never dare diss it. Our attempt is really to keep that kind of joy of chocolate intact while gently nudging the consumer to appreciate how much more chocolate can be!”

He is India’s first Level 3 Certified Chocolate Taster, certified by the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting, USA, and knows a thing or two about identifying flavours and aromas, which many of us struggle to do. “You need to build an internal reference chart — we often simply crunch into a chocolate without pausing to smell or taste.” For instance, one of the single-origin 68% dark cacao tablets sold at the outlet is from the farm of GVS Prasad in West Godavari, (yes, each bar can be traced with a QR code on the package to the farm from which it originated), where he grows cacao along with areca nut, banana and pepper. Keeping a piece of this dark number on my tongue, I closed my eyes and took in the aroma —  as the chocolate slowly melted, despite my ignorance, I could discern the fruity notes melding into the spicy intensity. A few minutes later, holding my nostrils tight as instructed, I put another bit of dark chocolate on my tongue. The difference in taste (without the aroma) was palpable — now it was only a bitter piece of cacao that I had to swallow in haste!

“Sensory exclusion blocks your memories of food, which play a huge role in how we perceive taste,” says Muppala. As the workshop progressed, I learnt to differentiate between bitter and sour — a crucial bit of knowledge that incredibly enhances your experience, and even managed to (faintly) identify the elusive umami (somewhat akin to the flavour of the ‘Chinese’ ingredient, monosodium glutamate).

Just as the Indian tongue (like mine) is still evolving in terms of chocolate tasting, the industry too is taking its baby steps. Although the pandemic was a dampener, Indian craft chocolate is finding its own niche. “People want to be innovative in their gifting… there is a hunger to be considered ‘refined’ in taste and this is where craft chocolate scores,” says Muppala. 

But the challenges are many. Not only is the quality of the cacao in India no great shakes, but cacao farmers are also few and logistical issues remain. Yet, more are jumping in. At present, there are more than 20 craft chocolate companies operating in India. The belief is that, like with coffee, as more consumers begin to appreciate the value of the vast variety in taste and flavour that ‘real’ chocolate can provide, the demand can only go up. And chocoholics can dole out knowing smiles — they know resistance is futile.

Know your chocolate

Do you know why dark chocolate is dark? Can cacao butter be eaten? And is cacao the same as cocoa? Here’s a quick primer.

*Milk chocolate is what we have all grown up munching on. This is chocolate that contains both cacao solids and milk powder or condensed milk — which gives it that creamy, sweet taste.

*Dark chocolate gets its intensity and richness from the high percentage of cacao solids that go into it. Little or no milk is added.

*Cacao butter is the fat that’s extracted from cacao beans, a key ingredient in chocolate production as well as in various confectioneries because of the texture and flavour it provides. In its raw form, it can be eaten, but you would not want to.

*White chocolate is basically a mixture of cacao butter, sugar and milk solids. No cacao solids are added here. So, is it still chocolate? You decide!

*Ganache is that smooth creamy filling you find in desserts, mainly as a topping. It is a mixture of chocolate and cream.

*Strictly speaking, cacao is the raw, unprocessed form of cocoa but the two words are often used interchangeably.

(Inputs for box from Chaitanya Muppala and Chef Ruby Islam)

The writer was in Hyderabad at the invitation of Manam Chocolates.