Posted on

How a retail management consultant is driving the Indian fine flavoured cocoa and bean to bar chocolate Industry!

Nitin @ a cacao farm

“Training and consultation from Nitin at Cocoashala was instrumental in kickstarting Paul And Mike in quick time. In addition to chocolate making, his insights about the Indian consumer were critical to create the right product portfolio”

Vikas Temani, Business Head, Paul & Mike Craft Chocolates, India.

L Nitin Chordia, India’s 1st certified chocolate taster, shares his incredible, inspiring & imprinting cacao/chocolate journey. In 2004, Nitin was awarded an M.Sc degree in Retail Business Management from the University of Surrey, UK. Among several retail business projects, his initial career’s highlight was his contribution towards setting up the Godrej Natures basket chain of gourmet grocery stores (recently purchased by Spencer’s Retail). During that project, Nitin gained valuable exposure towards fine flavoured bean to bar chocolates as he tasted/tested chocolates from 50+ global brands. During his management consulting days Nitin as part of many successful and failed projects and attributed most project failures to expectation mismatch. Fast forward to 2013, after having spent a good 4 years in the USA advising retail clients in various functions, Nitin decided to return to India to pursue his entrepreneurial dream but most importantly, with an aim of nation building and to try and make a real difference to what ever he chooses to do. As part of opportunity exploring, among his 1st investments was a chocolate backpacking trip to Belgium and a chocolate tasters certification course from IICCT, UK as he decided to learn about chocolates in depth with a top down approach. After the chocolate tasting course and a few lectures about his chocolate backpacking trip, Nitin decided to focus on chocolate education as an opportunity in India and to help make a difference to the Indian cacao industry and decided to set up Cocoashala in early 2014 in collaboration with his wife Poonam.

Cacao is the basic raw material needed to make chocolate. Nitin decided to research, explore and map the entire cacao value chain in-depth from the cacao farm to the chocolate bar. Nitin recognized a few gaps in the cacao value chain specifically and started to engage with cacao farmers and equipment makers. The gaps were clearly the availability of good quality cacao beans and small/medium scale processing equipment. He decided to invest considerable time over the next few years in developing and improving existing small scale equipments for processing cacao into chocolate and finally decided to work on and build an energy efficient cocoa cracker winnower himself! Cocoashala now offers a range of equipments to their students, program participants and startups regularly.

Nitin with cacao farmers

As next steps, starting early 2015, Nitin started visiting cacao farms across south india and realised that farmers had no incentive to treat their cacao post harvesting and hence the quality remained compromised. Nitin started working with farmers closely on controlling fermentations based on various factors across the seasons and has now helped in setting up 4 cacao fermentary’s in India which together are capable of processing over 100 tonnes of fine flavour cacao annually! These were great starts and in the right direction and ensures constant supply of cacao beans to the chocolate makers. Nitin is currently pursuing several more post harvest projects.

Kumar and Palanisamy of Soklet took samples to Chennai-based L Nitin Chordia, India’s first certified chocolate taster, and asked him to give them a try. “If he wasn’t going to like them, both the idea and the chocolate were going to be binned,” said Palanisamy. But Chordia liked what they’d done and that led to birth of bean-to-bar brand Soklet.

Palanisamy, Co-Founder, Soklet Tree to Bar Chocolate, India.
Nitin @ one of his cacao fermentry projects

With most pieces of the puzzle solved, and to tie up the loose ends, Nitin designed a signature 3-day chocolate making engagement program to help get chocolate entrepreuners, enthusiasts and future clients on the same page and level of understanding about the chocolate business and set expectations for both our clients and the industry. During this program, Nitin takes a deep dive into the cacao value chain, uncovers opportunities for clients, and even makes a few batches of delicious chocolate hands-on! This format has been incredibly successful for Cocoashala, and their most profitable and loyal clients have been recruited via this platform. Nitin believes in being transparent and upfront with his clients, and hence refuses to engage in projects unless the client spends 3 days with us and pays for this service.

The Hindu Business Line Coverage of Cocoashala

We’ve seen great results from this approach. In fact, we’ve had 4 clients/students who decided not to pursue opportunities in the cacao value chain after understanding the challenges. They thanked us for helping them save money that they might have lost had they made uninformed decisions. We like to think of this 3-day engagement as a small insurance premium that assures informed decision-making. Cocoashala has trained 127 participants till date.

“In the first workshop on chocolate making, I learnt about the process followed by chocolatiers. The second workshop was a step forward to getting the fermentation right, identifying the right flavours in the cacao, etc.,”

Akhil Grandhi, Founder, Bon Fiction Bean to Bar Chocolates, India.

Cocoashala has incubated 4 bean to bar chocolate brands till date to improve their current offerings, develop innovative products, expand their businesses, and create new job opportunities and offers IASS (Infrastructure As A Service) to bridge the gap for budding entrepreuners as they wait for the equipments that they have ordered with us to be delivered to them and we assist them build a product portfolio based on our proprietary CFEM (Cocoashala Flavour Evolution Model) and save on valuable go-to-market time. The missing piece however was the last mile education as far as chocolate appreciation and understanding is concerned and Nitin invested considerable time, effort and money into hosting the IICCT chocolate tasting courses in India from 2018. Nitin started as the 1st ever external faculty at the IICCT, UK delivering classes in London, Germany and Amsterdam from 2017. Cocoashala hosted level 1&2 of the chocolate tasters certification courses in 2018 & 2019 pre pandemic and the Level 3 for the 1st time in Asia in India in Feb 2023 post the pandemic! Nitin has also been a judge at the International Chocolate Awards (ICA), London since 2014!

Nitin enjoying setting up the chocolate unit @ Paul & Mike, Kerala, India !

On the whole, Cocoashala as India’s only Cacao incubation center aims to foster a vibrant cocoa and chocolate industry in India by providing entrepreneurs with access to Knowledge Transfer, Technical Expertise, Training, Consulting, Sparring Partner, end to end Implementation services funding and access to state-of-the-art Incubation center. Cocoashala has also played a crucial role in promoting sustainable cocoa production practices to help enhance the quality of Indian cocoa beans and placing India in the world chocolate map!

Nitin appreciating chocolate

“We are delighted to celebrate our 4th anniversary and the success of our incubation programs. We look forward to continuing our efforts to promote the cocoa and chocolate industry in India and helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams” said L Nitin Chordia, Co-Founder of Cocoashala. “Our mission is to build a strong and sustainable cocoa and chocolate industry in India, and we are proud of the role we have played in achieving this goal.” adds Nitin. Below are some of our client mentions about our programs at Cocoashala:

“Training and consultation from Nitin at Cocoashala was instrumental in kickstarting Paul And Mike in quick time. In addition to chocolate making, his insights about the Indian consumer were critical to create the right product portfolio” – Vikas Temani, Business Head, Paul & Mike Craft Chocolates, India.

Kumar and Palanisamy of Soklet took samples to Chennai-based L Nitin Chordia, India’s first certified chocolate taster, and asked him to give them a try. “If he wasn’t going to like them, both the idea and the chocolate were going to be binned,” said Palanisamy. But Chordia liked what they’d done and that led to birth of bean-to-bar brand Soklet. – Palanisamy, Co-Founder, Soklet Tree to Bar Chocolate, India.

“In the first workshop on chocolate making, I learnt about the process followed by chocolatiers. The second workshop was a step forward to getting the fermentation right, identifying the right flavours in the cacao, etc.,” – Akhil Grandhi, Founder, Bon Fiction Bean to Bar Chocolates, India.

Nitin also operates Kocoatrait, World’s most sustainable chocolate brand with Poonam and has helped save 300+ kgs of plastics from entering the landfills! Kocoatrait completes their contribution to the Indian cacao value chain.

About Cocoashala, Poonam Chordia & L Nitin Chordia

Cocoashala, Chennai is the world’s 1st and only bean to bar incubation center and training institute focusing on placing India on the world cacao map. Cocoashala has trained top bean to bar makers in India and helped them grow in this highly profitable and exciting Bean to Bar chocolate making industry. Cocoashala is founded by Poonam Chordia & L Nitin Chordia, both based in Chennai and are India’s 1st Certified Chocolate Tasters (Male & Female). Nitin has been a judge at the International Chocolate Awards, London. Nitin is the 1st external faculty at the Institute of fine chocolate tasting, London and has been hosting India’s 1st Chocolate tasting certification in Chennai since June 2018. Cocoatrait represents India in international cocoa conferences/events and represents Indian cacao. Poonam & Nitin also operate the world’s 1st and most sustainable chocolate brand called Kocoatrait.

Contact: L Nitin Chordia: nitin@cocoatrait.com; +919600064846.

Posted on

What influences and inspires India’s 1st certified chocolate tasters to create an impact and make a difference across the cacao value chain in India? It is more than what meets the eye!

Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a religious post and we are not Jain monks who, ofcourse, have far greater understanding of these issues discussed. We both have been born in Jain families and aim to practise the rules set out by Jainism as accurately as possible. Also, we are not an externally funded business/brand. Last but not the least, I hope this does not turn into a religious post. I am an all-welcoming democratic citizen of India and an aspiring Jain. Though I have the privilege of having been born into a Jain family, I do not yet follow strictly all the guidelines/rules and hence am choosing to use the word “aspiring jain”. But Jainism is embraced by families like ours and we choose to aim and adhere to its guidelines because it does not enforce the rules onto its followers.

We, Poonam Chordia & L Nitin Chordia are India’s 1st certified chocolate tasters and Co-founders of Kocoatrait chocolates. We feel that we have come a long way in our chocolate journey and should take a moment to summarise the inspiration behind what has helped us tide through Covid with very high empathy, compassion, self-belief and optimism to make a difference to the planet we live in and the people we live around.

Kocoatrait Range
Kocoatrait Range

As we welcome the year 2023 with measured optimism and with a belief that this year is going to be pivotal for the cacao and bean to bar chocolate industry in India, let us start with seeking forgiveness with folded hands for the unintentional wrongs that we might have done and hurt anyone while making progress in the past year. Micchami Dukkadam. Ofcourse, you might have guessed by now that this is related to us being Jains!

We discuss how the values, principles and practises of Jainism that we have been surrounded by during our formative years have guided us into building our business verticals namely, Cocoashala as Asia’s 1st and only bean to bar incubation centre and training institute, Kocoatrait as India’s 1st and only Zero Waste, planet friendly, Inclusive and sustainable chocolate brand and Cocoatrait as India’s 1st and only cocoa post-harvest solution and service provider and have helped us in the choices we have made in our chocolate business.

For starters, Jains have for thousands of years believed in respect for all living beings including plants and animals. The central philosophy of Jainism – one of the world’s oldest religions – is Ahimsa and is based on non-violence in thought, word and deed/actions. Jainism is a life style of values, which is alternative to the ideology of consumer society or consumerism. It is characterised by the virtues of non-violence, non-possession, non-absolutism and equality of each soul, which balances the internal happiness along with socio-eco harmony. Its philosophy educates, trains and motivates a human being to limit the strive for power and desires within the circumscribe of availability. Jains are inspired to work with what is available within nature and limits of money and to practise a compassionate form of capitalism.  Sustainable Development (SD) for Jains is based on the following major factors:

Economic Development

A lot of today’s world problems arises due to the need or greed to amass more wealth than others resulting in increasing consumerism. Jain philosophy considers all earth-bodied, water-bodied, air-bodied, fire-bodied, plant-bodied and the moveable creatures as a living being and any harm to these is considered as violence. Apart from Non-Violence, Jainism also preaches and requests followers to practise non-possession or what the modern world today refers to and is knows as Minimalism. Excess utilization of water, food, clothes and other resources is considered as causing or indulging in violence. It can also be termed as principal of economic humanity as it teaches disassociation of attachment with the available resources and to act like a custodian for the same. This principal includes avoiding hoarding of things more than what is required.

How Cocoatrait, Kocoatrait & Cocoashala has benefitted from the above principles: At Kocoatrait we have based our offering on less is more! We have designed our chocolate products and experiences to ensure we help consumers keep a tap on over consumption. We do not cut a single tree to operate our business. Cacao fruits are cut with specific care and we train farmers to ensure that the location from where the fruits are picked are not damaged and the tree produces fruit again next season at that location. Further, minimalism is stitched into the Jain philosophy and we are big on minimalism. Starting from our minimal graphic design, the optimised size of our bars and the minimal amount of packaging material we use on our bars, our focus on minimalism all the way! We design our chocolates by making most use of resources to ensure that the least quantity of consumption results in a more than usual amount of satisfaction (of flavour) thus encouraging lesser consumption and discouraging consumerism. We include a chocolate tasting guide to help reduce consumption.

Ecological Balance

Jain philosophy, based on non-violence, is a vigilant security guard of ecological balance. Don’t kill any living beings, don’t try to rule them is the core preaching and practice of Lord Mahavira. Jains have been under pledge not to causes harm to any birds, animals, flora and fauna and allows them to grow in a fearless environment. Jains are prohibited to cut green trees and kill even tiny living beings. A Jain should be a strict vegetarian, consume food before sunset and fast regularly. This life style leads to automatic conservation of nature, limits consumption and increases understanding of and accepts the respectful survival of every living creature. Jain monk’s travel barefoot throughout their life thus also reducing vehicular pollution and reducing chances of killing insects by stamping them.

How Cocoatrait, Kocoatrait & Cocoashala has benefitted from the above principles: The beans are fermented and sun dried at the farm level to ensure that the transportation and pollution is limited.  The fruit leftovers go back to the soil at the farm. Our office operation uses paper made from agro waste to ensure no tree is cut to make paper. We do not use fire to roast our beans. We procure our main raw material (cocoa beans) from within 550 kms of our unit and use innovative low energy equipment to process our chocolate. Our chocolate wrapping material is up-cylced from leftover cotton from garment factories and the cocoa husks which are left over while air roasting at our manufacturing unit. We operate in the circular economy and promote the reuse of the outer shipping box by giving the consumer various ways to repurpose them. We operate an EPR program wherein consumers can return the wrappers to us for recycling. We use water based ink to print on our wrappers and prioritise manual screen printing to reduce energy consumption.

Equality feeling

Jainism is a religion of socio-religious equality where all souls are considered and to be treated equal and does not differentiate between people of different religious faiths. Soul of ant is equally powerful as of elephant. Jainism gives equal right to women for religious practices. Jainism believes that one, who cultivates an attitude of equality towards all living beings, can attain equanimity. For many Jains, as well as those from other dharmic religions such as Sikhs and Hindus, philanthropy is “a duty not a choice” and it is a priority not an afterthought or a forced action. Philanthropy is practised as one of the ways and with an aim to elevate everyone around you to become equals.

How Cocoatrait, Kocoatrait & Cocoashala has benefitted from the above principles: We operate our business with an inclusive first mindset. We employ non jains from the local community in our business. Most of our employees are women and we are highly flexible towards their personal needs. We pay keen attention on inclusivity, thus, philanthropy, for us, is not an afterthought. The 1st choice printers for our wrappers are V-excel educational trust who train differently abled citizens on screen printing. This is to ensure that we have contributed as we start and every day and not accumulate (hoard) wealth before distributing it. We aim of giving equal opportunities to all. Our palm leaf boxes are made by financially disadvantaged rural women in tamilnadu. We engage differently abled artists, encourage them to be creative and create an art piece for us and we then print their work inside the wrapper by giving due credits. We always look for a chance to be inclusive and demonstrate equality while operating our business.

Emotional Maturity

Emotional Maturity implies controlling emotions willingly, Flexibility in attitude and to understand the sense of responsibility. Uncontrolled emotions are often responsible for conflicts at personal & social level. Jain philosophy is based on the nature of reality hence accepted the existence of opposites.  Its core code of conduct includes non-absolutism, which nurtures the flexible approach to accept the different thoughts with compassion.

How Cocoatrait, Kocoatrait & Cocoashala has benefitted from the above principles:

At the farm level, our post-harvest practises/protocols have always approached treating the cacao plants and soil with care, emotionally, with great compassion, calmness and flexibility as if they were another human being and accepting that there will be batches of cacao fermentation and or chocolate making that might go wrong. Across the value chain, starting from working with farms that organically grow cacao, ensuring best practises so that all the flowers convert to fruit, keeping a check on temperatures during fermentation at every stage, to reducing wastage at every step of the post harvesting process, ensuring there is minimal fruit wastage by defining the harvest protocols, optimising batch sizes, using natural methods (sun light) to achieve correct beans drying and using shade optimally, low roasting our cacao beans, using gentle cracking and air flow to winnow the husks of our beans, keeping refining/grinding temperatures under check, our progress has been purely and surely because we treat cacao beans delicately and respectfully as a living being across the process. We accept each bean is different and adjust/adapt our process accordingly. We have gone to an extent to be vaastu compliant in the positioning of our equipment’s and processes to ensure that no negative energies are captured in our cacao beans or chocolates. Last but not the least, we pay the cacao farmers a higher price than asked to ensure that we demonstrate our compassion towards them. This, to us, has been our differentiator from the very beginning.

Educational Elevation

Education is the most important tool to establish and maintain the sustainability of humanity. In Jainism, it is said that no conduct is possible without knowledge. Further, defining knowledge, Lord Mahavira said that “with the help of which we can know the truth, control the restless mind, and purify the soul is called knowledge.” Attaining salvation is the ultimate aim of Jainism. The criteria for salvation is to have Keval Gyan i.e. attainment of complete knowledge. Knowledge through research is an integral part of Jain philosophy and continuous application of the same is the primary task. Jainism lays less emphasis on the formal knowledge but more to the practical application, which trains the person to behave in harmony with nature and other living creatures.

How Cocoatrait, Kocoatrait & Cocoashala has benefitted from the above principles:

As we operate Cocoashala, an institute aimed at spreading knowledge about bean to bar chocolate making and tasting, we have always believed that equality in society can be achieved via knowledge sharing, education and research. The aim of our 360 degree education approach with the certification courses we offer in chocolate making and chocolate tasting is to do our best to elevate all members of the industry with in-depth knowledge. We have incubated and helped establish several chocolate brands at Cocoashala without fearing them as competition and with a clear and pure approach of ensuring their well-being and progress via continuous knowledge sharing, education and training. We started with no formal education in chocolate making and we worked backwards to increase our knowledge with in-depth research. We researched and understood the final chocolate product in-depth and then backward integrated to equipment curation/contract manufacturing, and then to the farm level where we now undertake post-harvest projects. The guiding principles have been research. We have never assumed that we know everything there is to know and we have improved our understanding via practical application of our knowledge. Having no formal education has never been disability for us and research has guided us all along. Our association with IICCT, UK is also our effort to bring the best of education to the community.

I hope that you like reading this piece and I would welcome and appreciate your honest feedback. Kindly contact or whats me at +919600064846 or nitin@cocoatrait.com

Posted on

Kocoatrait Sustainable Corporate Gifts Inspired by Climate Stripes

Kocoatrait for the 1st time in India presents inclusive, zero waste and sustainable bean to bar chocolates gifts Inspired by Climate Stripes and contributing to the circular economy specifically designed for the responsible corporate and conscious consumers. The climate stripes is a very strong visual representation of the current issue of global warming and were created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading in 2018. Kocoatrait in its Sustainable Corporate Gifts Inspired by Climate Stripes, has used this strong visual where there are No words. No numbers. No graphs. Just a series of vertical coloured bars, showing the progressive heating of our planet in a single, striking image. They show clearly and vividly how global average temperatures have risen over a period of time.

The Climate Stripes

This sustainable gift is designed to help responsible/conscious organisations, brands and consumers use this festive season to help communicate to their business associates and employees the message of global warming in an aesthetic and innovative reusable palm leaf based box and improve internal & external branding. The inclusive palm lead box is made by M.Rm.Rm Cultural Foundation who partner with us for our inclusivity efforts. M.Rm.Rm works primarily with local village women in rural Tamilnadu to revive craft, while at the same time providing them with a reliable source of income, exposure and a tremendous amount of confidence. It organizes workshops for craft communities with craft revival, design and marketing in mind, while at the same time, helping young members of the community finish their schooling. The Foundation also encourages, supports and sponsors students from design schools to research and document crafts and architecture, and facilitates interaction between students and local craft communities.

Kocoatrait Sustainable Corporate Gifts Inspired by The Climate Stripes

This palm leaf box contains 4 or 5 paper/plastic free sustainable Kocoatrait single origin organic bean to bar chocolates which operate in and contribute to the circular economy and help reduce landfills. Kocoatrait has prevented 200+ kgs of single use plastics from entering landfills. Kocoatrait chocolates are made using Single origin Indian cacao and are offered in various flavours, inclusions and sustainable ingredients making it the perfect gift during this festive season. The palm leaf box contains the chocolate and the palm leaf box is housed in a innovative reusable outer shipping box. Thus making the entire package a sustainable, reusable and recyclable corporate gift starting at the price of as little as a team lunch! You can click on this link to order the box: https://cocoatrait.com/product/climate-stripes-inspired-palm-leaf-box-4-or-5-chocolate/

Kocoatrait Sustainable Chocolates
Kocoatrait Sustainable Chocolates
Kocoatrait Reusable e-Commerce shipping boxes.
Kocoatrait Client List
Kocoatrait Client List

Call us on +919600064846 or reach out to us at nitin@cocoatrait.com for further details.

Posted on

Current state of Indian cacao and bean to bar chocolate

Setting the context, Indian craft chocolates are growing on account of the visible decline in sales of traditional Indian sweets (mithai). Large FMCG chocolate brands have been wooing customers to move away from traditional Indian sweets for years with some absolutely brilliant and award winning communications centered around emotions. The collective efforts around communication about the alternate “meetha” have started to become visible and show fruits in terms of shift in preferences and sales. The shift from sale of “open” Indian sweets in traditional mom and pop shops to pre-packaged branded sweets has lead to small sweet shops facing closures across the country. The beneficiaries of this slow down in sales of Indian sweets have certainly been chocolate manufacturers and startup Indian Bean to Bar chocolate makers where sales growth has been very healthy and in the upwards of 10% annually in case of FMCG players and upwards of 25% annually in case of Bean to Bar chocolate makers. To add to the equation, dark chocolates, which use more cocoa in their recipes have started to become popular and relevant to a larger set of consumers. Mintel research indicates that 38 per cent Indians associate dark chocolate as a premium product while 39 per cent consider it ideal for gifting. The indian craft chocolate brands primarily aim to take away consumers of “imported chocolates”. This has further made the main ingredient (cacao) more relevant to the industry.

Given the market scenario, Indian cacao and its contribution to bean to bar chocolates worldwide is at a very interesting juncture and has been a topic of interest for many and has received its share of criticism in the past. This criticism is for obvious and understandable reasons. The biggest reasons could have been attributed to the lack of exposure of the capabilities of Indian cacao to Indian Journalists and Media in the past. Indian bean to bar chocolates deliver several benefits ranging from contribution to farmer welfare, the economic benefits to the growing country and eventually to consumers good health as well. Read about them here. However, one should point out that the face of Indian cacao and torch bearers for the past several years have been 2 organised efforts which have helped hundreds of bean to bar chocolate makers create award winning chocolates. Certainly worth mentioning are the efforts by Regal Plantations and GoGround Beans & Spices in improving cacao post harvesting protocols and firmly placing India on the global cacao map since 2016. Regal Plantations has literally owned the “Annamalai” origin for many years now and Go Ground has been synonymous to the “Idukki” origin across the world. Their untiring efforts since 2016 has made Indian cacao more popular globally than in India itself and with the Indian bean to bar industry now on the verge of explosion and expansion, their efforts will be commended more than ever before.

We, at Cocoashala, have been consultants in the implementation of 4 of the largest and most active fermentation units in India which have an installed capacity of over 100 tonnes of fine flavour cocoa annually! We have this year (2024) commenced the most technologically advanced cacao post-harvest project in India using our 10+ years of experience in the subject and with a scientific approach towards problem solving. This I thought would be the right time to pen down this thought piece.

Cacao and chocolate have several hundred flavor compounds which make it more complex than grape and wine. Just like how it is believed that doctors know very less about the human body, it is true about cacao as well! It would be fair to say that we are in a phase of initial discovery and research globally. Being involved in cacao research and cacao post harvest protocol implementation over last 5 years in India, I consider myself really privledged. We have just scratched the surface and there is a lot more to learn for everyone involved. To say, Indian cacao beans have already arrived would be a grossly wrong statement to make. It hasn’t stood the test of time and we haven’t produced enough award winning cacao consistently to claim any accolades yet. We won a gold and a few silvers and bronze at the Asia Pacific awards recently but we would like to keep our bar higher. We must note that chocolate is a combination of Cacao, Sugar, cocoa butter & milk and the flavours added to it have impressed the judges and that is being awarded. It is not the cacao from India. When flavours are added, cacao on many occasions become incidental. India has not won awards for their high dark % chocolates yet. I do not wish or intend to take anything away from the awarded chocolate maker but we need to understand what is being awarded. A bean to bar chocolate maker’s intent to pay a tribute to the Indian cacao should be to select the right cacao beans and then either retain or enhance the good flavors that exist in the bean and express them in a non-flavoured dark chocolate. How can this be achieved? Sounds interesting? Read on for more.

To start with some background, India is a very interesting country from a cacao demand & supply perspective. It is among the very few countries that grows cacao and has a large chocolate consuming population as well. This is very uplifting/encouraging. India is perhaps also the only country where you could consume craft (read expensive) chocolates made from the same origin/region (let us take Idukki, Kerala as a good example) and notice dramatically conflicting and different flavor profiles and experience. On one hand, you could enjoy delicate and interesting raisin notes with a clean finish in chocolates crafted by one chocolate maker and with another chocolate makers creation more commonly you would find defective putrid, hammy, cheesy and undesirable notes! This inconsistency of flavour delivery between chocolate makers (mainly due to differences in suppliers) also changes the fundamental opinions of the nascent Indian consumer who wishes to support Indian cacao and chocolate, but, this variation/differential ends up doing a disservice to the origin.

Kocoatrait Zero Waste Chocolate
Indian Cacao

Industrially produced commercial chocolates are made using cacao powder or an intermediate product (cocoa mass) as the base ingredient. In the case of high quality bean to bar chocolates, cacao beans are used as the base raw material. Using powder or mass as a startpoint helps to keep costs low since the ingredients are treated to ensure consistency. Needless to say, the acceptability of the “treatment” is always going to be debated. This is where the plot changes for bean to bar chocolate makers. They have a choice between beans that have been handled (harvested, fermented & dried) well at the farm by professionals Vs beans that have been handled with an intention to be sold to mass market buyers who most often do not intend to make the final chocolate product with them.

As a start, we shall differentiate between fine flavor specialty and bulk cacao. Fermented and dried cocoa beans that possess the potential to unlock interesting flavors after roasting, besides the typical cocoa flavor, are often identified as “fine or flavor” cocoa beans. The highlight of and difference between fine/flavor cocoa and bulk cocoa is in the flavor that the beans can lend to the chocolate. Bulk cacao usually do not boast of any delicate flavors and there is no consistency in their post harvesting practices. Often, beans with flavor defects also pass as bulk cacao.

Globally, only a few origins of cocoa beans are considered as fine flavored cocoa types. This is due to the limited availability of genetic and/or geographic origins of cocoa beans that contain intrinsic fine flavor attributes. While cacao gets identified by the genetics, the post-harvest processes employed enhance the flavor development. Fine flavors in cacao include fruit (fresh, citrus etc), floral, herbal, and wood notes, nut, caramel and cacao notes (Yes! cacao is also a note!).

It is established that fermentation and the process/protocols adopted influences the formation of flavor compounds in cacao. The science and understanding of cacao post harvesting (fermentation and drying) is at its nascency in India and most evolved bean to bar makers even globally are trying to learn as they go along. Improving post-harvest processes, helps farmers get a better value for their produce. India grows only the bulk cacao varieties and Indian cacao farmers have not invested in improving their post-harvest practices. This has traditionally been due to the lack of demand for better processed beans.

Scientifically, the key to producing fine flavor chocolate from fine flavor cacao is consistent availability of the same flavor compounds in cacao. Hence, the focus, as far as cacao is concerned, is on repeatability and consistency in the cacao post-harvest and chocolate production process. In the current nascent phase, Indian craft chocolate makers work with several variables in cacao that are not even understood, monitored, measured or controlled.

As we understand the origin of flavors better, we can note that the flavor of cocoa beans that grow within 20° of latitude on either side of the equator can be significantly different, thus can express the flavor of its country of origin and the practices adopted specific to that geographical area.

In many cacao growing countries where the required genetic varieties are not available, there is now a shift towards enhancing flavor profile by employing accurate post-harvest practices and additional resources to try and get the best out of the bulk variety of cacao. Much like coffee, specialty/craft chocolate producers are now demanding better cacao with variations in notes to make better and more expressive chocolate.

At the very high level, cacao and hence chocolate flavor can vary between and within origins and is influenced by the soil condition, season, microbial population, ripeness of the specific variety of the fruit, pulp reduction, temperatures, humidity, drying protocols, roasting and of course the chocolate recipe and manufacturing process. AND we are not even talking genetics, the amount of sugars available, amount of mass, number of turns, type of wood used in fermentation boxes and last but not the least, the boxes shape & size yet! This makes the post harvesting of cacao very interesting and immersive as a process. The variabilities are huge. Any change in any of the above listed variables impact flavour and this must be carefully observed and controlled if possible.

Current state of Indian cacao
Current state of Indian cacao

It might also be pointless talking about cacao varieties in India, because cacao farmers have restricted sources of supply of planting material. Clearly, we are too early in the evolution to be able to understand the impact of terroir on cacao being offered from various states in India. Most cacao farmers in India have small land holdings and do not have the minimum quantity of beans required to process cacao consistently. This means, what you get today would be different in the immediate next batch because the variables differ. To add to that, a typical Indian cacao farm has 3-4 varietals growing in harmony. The way nature has it, farmers cannot ensure that all the varietals are harvested at the same time and processed together because they have a small window during the season. Each variety has a different ripening period, variable sugar levels and flavor capability and hence should ideally be fermented in isolation.

With no defined SOP’s for cacao farmers to follow to produce fine flavour beans and no qualified agency to support this body of knowledge, a google search (or research) seldom provides an understanding of the actual process that should be adopted for maximizing flavor potential and delivering them consistently. To add to the problem, many farmers do not understand the final product (which is chocolate!) How does one expect farmers to improve the acceptability of cacao when they do not understand the application of it? This is extremely difficult and hard to do! Further, most fermentation results in small and inconsistent batches of cacao and does not guarantee any repeatability and consistency of flavours and hence hampers the ability of the farmer to charge higher prices. This is because the variables that impact flavors are either not known or monitored. This in turn impacts the ability of bean to bar chocolate makers to create consistently good products. Almost every cacao batch that is fermented would have differential variables to deal with and would have the potential to help chocolate producers exhibit different flavour notes in each chocolate bar! In a typical milk chocolate, the role of cacao and the manifestations of its defects are limited. The real test of a batch of cacao is when the chocolate maker decides to make a 70+% dark chocolate bar.

Given the current state of Indian cacao and the stage of its evolution, to say that dark chocolate made using cacao from India or even Tamilnadu or Kerala has specific flavor profiles, or label them for flavors on packaging, would be blatantly, scientifically and embarrassingly wrong.

– L Nitin Chordia, India’s 1st Certified Chocolate taster

The most we can perhaps claim at this stage of our understanding and evolution is that a specific batch of chocolates offers a set of specific notes and they may not even exist in the batch of chocolates produced from the next lot of cacao! This inconsistency also makes bean to bar chocolate interesting for both the maker and the consumer.

Best Dark Chocolate Brand in India
Best Dark Chocolate Brand in India

There are a handful of Indian bean to bar chocolate makers who are trying really hard to deliver their best experiences and it is certain that we will see high growth in the Indian bean to bar chocolate business over the next 5 years. I expect to have over 300 makers by 2025 in India. Hence my suggestion at this stage would be to hold on for a bit before passing a judgement on Indian cacao to let us settle down a bit as a origin and put in place practises that can help us look beyond the Indian shores and knock on the global opportunity map with more consistency. While there may be a long way to go for Indian cacao, chocolate makers would evolve with consistent and more interesting offerings. We can only expect things to look better going forward. We monitor the progress of Indian cacao and chocolates very closely, and would reiterate that:

“When you have good grapes in hand, you decide to make grape juice with it or fine wine!”.

– L Nitin Chordia, India’s 1st certified chocolate taster

Sorry to disappoint, but it is time to break the suspense! The myth that the surrounding plants have an impact on the flavour of cacao is unscientific! The myth that the soil, topography, and climate (terroir) have an impact on the flavor of cacao is unscientific and not proven too! It makes for no story! As they say, the future is bright. In our case, with increased availability of fine flavour cacao beans, the future is about dark chocolates in India.

About L Nitin Chordia and Cocoashala

L Nitin Chordia is India’s 1st Certified Chocolate Taster and 1st Indian Judge at the International Chocolate Awards, London and co-founder of Kocoatrait sustainable chocolates. Nitin is a cacao post-harvest professional working with an aim to transform India cacao and doubling farmer income. Nitin is the 1st Non-founder teacher at the Institute and delivers his lectures in London. Cocoashala is an initiative to promote knowledge, education, production and consumption of fine chocolates in India. Cocoashala also aim to invest in research, development and enhancement of fine chocolate techniques, processes and recipes’.

Posted on

Sustainable Resolutions for 2022! – Kocoatrait Chocolates

Sustainable Planet 2022

It is the time of the year when we start to think and resolve about how to make our planet a better place to live in. While making planet friendly and sustainable resolutions for 2022 might seem like a herculean task, a start is important. Both corporates and individuals can become more cognizant of certain actions and efforts and make our beautiful planet a better place to live in. While they say that resolutions are made to be broken, we hope that this year is going to be slightly different and more resolved for each one of us. Kocoatrait presents 30 resolutions which are simple ways to be kinder to the planet. We sincerely hope that you can join us to make a difference.

  1. Attempt to go single-use plastic free
  2. Less is more! Buy only what you will use, use up what you already have before making new purchases, buy second-hand / Pre Owned / Pre Loved and buy less.
  3. Donate items you don’t need/use
  4. Try up-cycling and repurpose whatever possible
  5. Embrace veganism, vegetarianism and natural food products
  6. Shift to less processed/non processed foods
  7. Carry and use reusable water bottles, straws and food containers and refuse disposables
  8. Use reusable bags/containers for errands
  9. Buy products with lesser packaging (support zero waste brands)
  10. Minimise food, kitchen and bathroom wastage
  11. Reduce kitchen / toilet paper usage
  12. Start DIYing your own personal care, cleaning products, or food, like granola or pickled vegetables.
  13. Start home composting
  14. Support small businesses and prioritise shopping locally
  15. Shower less and conserve water
  16. Grow your own organic herbs/vegetables
  17. Cut down your vehicle’s harmful emissions by taking public transportation, carpooling, biking, e-scootering or walking
  18. Clock lesser air-miles. Consider alternates to air travel.
  19. Buy sustainable clothing and cut out fast fashion
  20. Hang your laundry to dry instead of using the dryer
  21. Use natural clothes/home cleaning products
  22. Use reusable batteries
  23. Refill your home / bath supplies in your existing containers
  24. Clean up your e-mailbox as much as you can
  25. Take baby steps towards energy conservation at home/office
  26. Upgrade to greener devices. A laptop, for example, uses lesser energy than a computer!
  27. Unplug or Switch off the mains of the gadgets/electronics that are not being used
  28. Plant as many trees as you can
  29. Take prints only when necessary and use paper made from agrowaste
  30. Volunteer to help execute sustainability initiatives

These are only a few ways to help contribute to the betterment of the planet. You are requested to do more! At Kocoatrait we request you to meet us half way and help us in our efforts to save the planet by returning and recycling our wrappers and reusing our cardboard box. Learn more about us: https://cocoatrait.com/about-us/

About Kocoatrait: Kocoatrait is the world & India’s 1st Sustainable Luxury Zero Waste, Single Origin, Organic and Planet Friendly Bean to Bar Chocolate contributing to the circular economy. Kocoatrait was conceived with an aim to enable aspiring Indian citizens to adopt a zero waste lifestyle. Our aim of being planet concious in our actions and the support of our planet concious consumers have been very rewarding and have helped us save 200+ kgs of single use plastic/laminated chocolate wrappers from being dumped into landfills to date! This is our measure of the impact of our Circular Economy Model on climate change! Click for Kocoatrait range of chocolates