Artisanal chocolate in India is science, craft, and a quiet history lesson

Dairy Milk. Amul milk chocolate. 5 Star. Milky Bar. For decades, these were the chocolates Indian childhood consisted of. Most came from two Indian brands: Cadbury (since 1948) and Amul (since1973). What they had in common: cheap cacao, high sugar, and little regard for flavour. The darker, richer bars with noticeable cacao profile, came from imports or often tucked in the duty-free bags of relatives visiting from abroad. 

So when Delhi-based publicist Lalthang Khuptong tried his first dark chocolate—brought from London by a friend—at age 11, it felt like a revelation.“It was the stuff of dreams,” he says. Today, he’s part of a growing wave of Indian consumers exploring artisanal chocolate in India, bean-to-bar chocolate creations  from Indian chocolate  brands. “The taste of chocolates in India has been dictated by big brands for so long,” he says. “But people today know that bigger corporations make sugar-heavy fares.” 

A more ingredient-conscious middle class, with higher disposable income and a preference for local brands, is gradually shifting the market. “People don’t mind shelling out more for homegrown items,” adds Khuptong. “I’ll pay ₹ 1,000 more than [what I’d spend on] a Zara shirt to buy one from a homegrown brand instead.” People today are also more experimental, and it extends to food too. Khuptong is just as happy biting a chocolate-flavoured mithai as he is ordering “kurkure momo”. 

The slow rise of artisanal chocolate in India 

Consumers today understand two kinds of chocolates: industrially-made and chocolate made from scratch—from the cacao bean—often termed as ‘craft chocolate’ or ‘bean-to-bar chocolate’. It’s a term L. Nitin Chordia, chocolate expert and partner at bean-to-bar institute Cocoashala, pushes back on since even cheaper, industrial cocoa powder can technically be used to craft chocolate. “But the science, and real art, of chocolatemaking begins at the bean stage,” he says. 

India has long produced industrial chocolate from locally grown Indian cocoa, with brands like Campco Chocolate (established in 1986 in Karnataka) and Morde (1983 in Pune). Campco was set up to supportIndian cacao farmerswhen Cadbury pulled out due to a global price drop. Industrially-produced chocolate has shaped India’s sweet-leaning palate and remains a staple for most bakers who rely on cost efficiency. “Indian bakers are cost-conscious because their consumer expects a chocolate pastry for ₹15 even in 2025,” says Chordia. “Also, Indian bakers don’t know how to handle Indian cacao yet since most of them attend fancy institutions abroad and come back learning recipes, not the science behind how an ingredient works.”

When it comes to baking, internationally produced chocolate, with its higher fat content, is easier to work with. It is richer, creamier, and more predictable. “International chocolate made using cacao from Africa or South America is produced for chocolatiers to work with too, while Indian chocolate is made from the point of proving that India can make Indian chocolate,” explains chef Prateek Bakhtiani, founder of Mumbai-based Ether Atelier. “A lot of chocolate making in India is still rudimentary.” And it still has to match the palette of today’s consumers—the younger, more health-conscious generation that prefers less sugar even in their chocolate. 

It took two expats between 2012 and 2014—Fabien Bontems, co-founder and technical director of Mason & Co in Auroville, and David Belo, MD and Creative Director, Naviluna in Mysuru—to use Indian cacao for producing artisanal chocolate in India, rather than relying on imports. 

Yet until 2019, India’s bean-to-bar scene remained small, fragmented, and largely under the radar. “Even today, not too many Indians who hold chocolates like Lindt and Godiva as the gold standard for chocolates, know the details of bean-to-bar chocolates,” says Vikas Temani, who founded Paul and Mike in 2019. 

Even though Subko Coffee Roasters launched their range of artisanal chocolates, Subko Cacao, in 2023, it wasn't till Manam Chocolate launched in August 2023 that artisanal chocolate in India received a reasonable publicity push, complete with brand storytelling, visual identity, and retail presence. Manam Chocolate Karkhana was established in Hyderabad in 2023, and a retail experience store set up in Delhi's Eldeco Centre in 2025. Every bar of chocolate comes with a QR code linking to details about the Indian cacao farm, harvest date and farmer. While earlier, players like Paul and Mike focused on product quality, they did not really invest heavily in brand-building.

Manam Chocolate recently raised US$3.5 million in a pre-Series A round from marquee investors. 

"No Indian [chocolate] brand right now can level up to Manam Chocolate because they got the right advisors on board, besides the attention to detail and resultant technology,” says Chordia. “The strategy is simple: Burn some cash initially till the others give up and then rule the industry." 

Meanwhile, Paul and Mike remains a small micro operation—more distribution-led, positioned as an FMCG product and sold largely via third-party outlets. Mason & Co, on the other hand, hasn’t scaled meaningfully, having changed hands multiple times. "David Belo’s Naviluna has survived the test of time because it's more a story of contentment of a brand based in a small city that works well,” says Chordia. “No amount of glamourised packaging will deter their loyal customers."

Most smaller brands of artisanal chocolate in India also struggled to scale and compete with the bigger brands because of the technical challenges involved in processing Indian cacao. Temani admits it took them nearly two years to perfect their offerings, thanks to the complexity of each step: farming, fermentation, drying, roasting, conching, and grinding. 

Why Indian cacao still struggles to meet global flavour standards

The root of the slow growth of artisanal chocolate in India is genetic—quite literally. Cacao was first introduced to India by the British in the 18th century, with early plantations across South India. But large-scale cultivation only began in the 1960s, when industrial players optimised it for yield over flavour. Indian cacao, bred for productivity, lacks the complexity found in South American varieties and hence isn’t considered premium.

One long-term solution is to alter the genetic markup of Indian cacao. But first, the trees must be genetically profiled and marked, which has never been attempted before, largely due to cacao’s historical treatment as a commodity crop rather than a flavour-rich ingredient. 

“The science behind it all starts on the farm with soil chemistry, leaf analysis, and basic farming practices,” says Chaitanya Muppala, founder, Manam Chocolate. “The cacao fruit and pulp have flavour precursors that we are experimenting with by working with different naturally-occurring cultures and bacteria that get activated in different stages of fermentation. This allows us to get into enzymatic and metabolic activity to convert those flavour precursors to flavours in the beans,” he explains. 

Manam Chocolate, is also developing predictive technology to anticipate cacao flavour profiles based on origin, harvest month, and processing protocol. They currently work with over 3,000 acres of cacao, across 200 farmers over three districts and two states: Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Once they have collected enough data—from the genome to the flavour, they plan to run it through a machine-learning algorithm to build a predictive model for flavour outcomes, creating a game-changing technology that they intend to license across the industry. 

But it’s a long game. With regulatory hurdles around bringing plant material, quarantining protocol, and the time it takes for cacao trees to bear fruit (4 years), the entire process could take up to 12 years. “Only then will we know if the cacao seeds are any good. If it survives, that is,” says the Stanford graduate. 

How Indian chocolatiers are working around the limitations of Indian cacao 

While the genetics evolve slowly, Indian producers of artisanal chocolate are engineering their own fixes. Indian cacao has a higher level of astringency—about 35-40 per cent—which can be reduced by ensuring the placenta of the fruit doesn’t enter the fermentation process or during the roasting stage, which can lower the astringency by up to 75 per cent. 

They have also developed ways to handle acidity, which is  30-35 per cent higher in Indian cacao than global standards. “They either age the cacao beans, or remove it during the roasting of the beans, or during the refining stage, or they age the chocolate itself,” informs Chordia. 

“Increased levels of acidity in Indian cacao occur when there’s more pulp in the cacao, leading to more sugar, and hence fermentation (because sugar is food for microorganisms and bacteria),” explains Temani. “So, the solution is to reduce the pulp before putting the cacao beans (extracted from the cacao pods) for fermentation.” 

Bitterness is yet another challenge. Indian cacao is roughly 50 per cent more bitter due to the lower fat content in the bean. Temani adds some cocoa butter to balance the flavour. “Without it, Indian cacao can only make great dark chocolate within the 64-68 per cent dark range,” explains Chordia. 

Other Indian chocolatiers take a similar approach. Pascati—launched in 2015  after co-founder Devansh Ashar began experimenting in his Mumbai apartment—uses pre-fermented, dried cacao and controls the roasting in-house. “Medium-to-light roast lends fruity profiles to the beans. Tempering, the next step, is crucial, as we heat to 48 degrees Celcius, then cool to 31 degrees Celcius to mould it. If the temperature is off by even 2 degrees, it’ll give white and grey lines called bloom,” says Ashar.  

“A shock in temperature could cause cocoa butter within the chocolate to rise to the surface,”says Karan Tejani, co-founder,  Ziaho Chocolate (established in. 2022), which makes chocolates in flavours like modak and pina colada. “And since chocolate is hydrophobic in nature, the humidity of the processing environment needs to be well controlled,” he adds. 

From chai to chilli: pairing local ingredients with Indian bean-to-bar chocolate

Flavouring almost becomes a necessity when working with Indian cacao, which often lacks strong natural cacao notes. “Though it can be fixed via roasting, the margin of error is too less. Burnt, it’ll give notes of burnt coffee instead,” says Chordia. 

That challenge has pushed Indian chocolatiers to treat flavour not just as a garnish, but a creative solution. Local ingredients—mango, masala chai, guava, cardamom, jasmine—are more than mere cultural callbacks. They help mask the bitterness, acidity, and lack of depth in the base cacao.

Pascati offers mango dark chocolate bars (63 per cent dark) using freeze-dried mango, along with flavours such as paan  and a guava chilli-sea salt—the latter a nod to the old-school street snack. Paul and Mike’s flavour library is even more expansive: Alphonso mango, jamun, sitaphal, cashew and pepper, coconut and ginger, Madurai jasmine, Kannauj rose, thandai, filter coffee, and masala chai—all worked into bars of varying intensity. 

One such bar, their 57% Vegan Milk Indian-Style Masala Chai won a gold medal at the International Chocolate Awards—Asia Pacific 2023 in Hong Kong and a silver at the Academy of Chocolate Awards 2022. Chordia, however, is still sceptical. “The chocolate has great depth, an aftertaste, and melt. But it’s almost a product that’s been built for awards. The consumers buying it include expats and NRIs who don’t have access to masala chai, or will buy it for gifting purposes once in a while. Indians who have access to masala chai do not want it in their chocolate. It’ll just get people talking about the brand.”

Bakhtianai offers a different view: “Who is even eating elaichi chocolate in India when a blueberry cheesecake chocolate is as Indian to us?” Not Megha Marwah, 35, a Gurugram-based resident who works in advertising. She’s open to trying it out, but is cautious. “Just a piece,” she says. “I would have thandai or mango as is, not in a chocolate bar. Having dark chocolate that I like in some odd cardamom flavour will actually stop my carvings."

Where Marwah draws the line is fusion mithai. “The taste of kaju needs to be there in a kaju kalti. I know people who like the chocolate in it, but there are many, like me, who don’t. Just like I wouldn’t touch a chocolate momo. Neither of these qualify as comfort food, because they only cause  confusion without igniting cravings,” she shares.

The issue here may not be the concept—but how the flavours are being integrated. Few brands in India have managed to bridge the gap between nostalgia and novelty in a way that feels both intentional and satisfying.

Can Indian chocolate in mithai go beyond being a marketing strategy

At Bombay Sweet Shop, the answer is percentage. The team is deliberate about the two varieties of premium Belgian chocolate they use: 55 per cent dark for intense ganache  and 70 per cent for a smoother, milder sweetness. “We choose chocolates that complement the traditional sweetness of mithai, rather than overpower it,” says Sameer Seth, founder & CEO, Bombay Sweet Shop, Hunger Inc. Hospitality. “That’s why, in the 54.5 Dark Chocolate Kaju Katli or Indie Bar–Coconut Caramel Patissa, we use dark chocolate to add richness without overwhelming the flavours of the katli or the peda.” 

Still, for many seasoned chefs, chocolate in mithai only remains a surface-level fix. “The fact that people are buying this just means that marketing is working. Mithai and chocolate belong to different worlds,” says Bakhtiani, who has worked with 15 varieties of single-origin cacao, including Indian ones, while developing a product line for Manam Chocolate. “There’s no way I can attempt to make chocolate mithai without disrespecting the craft of mithai-making.” 

Muppala calls chocolate mithai a shortcut and a disservice. While working at his family-owned sweet shop, Almond House in Hyderabad, he noticed customers had begun asking for chocolate options, requests that eventually pushed him to explore the idea more seriously. “Mithai is a combination of pulses, grains, dairy, and some sort of sweetener. But, we aren’t going to make mithai more relevant by adding chocolate in it or adding liquor in it. You’ll make something else—that’s not mithai.”

Why younger Indians prefer bean-to-bar chocolate over traditional mithai

In India, chocolate cannot replace mithai culturally, but it’s already doing so socially. “When we were younger, and our parents would visit anyone, they would always take a box of mithai. People don’t do that anymore,” says Muppala.“The more global audience is shifting to bakeries, patisseries, and chocolate. Culturally and socially, it’s the same–Indians like to give gifts, share, and indulge in sweet things. But the relevance of mithai has been challenged; it is becoming more festival-driven, with everyday consumption on a decline. Mithai is going to find its new relevance soon. Somebody is going to—maybe I am going to!”  

Part of the switch comes down to who’s making the purchase.“Even though the older family members, say those 50+ years, decide the budget or pays, it’s the millennial or Gen Z member picking the item,” notes Chordia. “These aren’t generations that have grown on mithai, but on  chocolates. Younger Indians respect (and hence, buy) anything expensive which is made with Indian ingredients.”

So while Indian cacao might eventually hold its own on the global stage, its current popularity may have less to do with its inherent quality and more to do with how it’s marketed. In 2023, cacao prices surged globally, triggering headlines about extinction and shortages, briefly pushing cacao out of its commodity status and into cultural reference.

Still, bean-to-bar chocolates in India may remain niche, Chordia points out artisanal chocolates in India may follow the same pattern as mithai—a regional reign over mass reach. 

It’s a dynamic Muppala understands well. “We are all kings as mithai brands in our own cities, because it’s regional and specific. But, chocolate is global. We don’t have to reduce ourselves into a checkbox of cardamom or some spice. If we embrace the complexity of what we are as Indians in 2025—which includes [the popularity of] flavours like peanut butter, raspberry, and lime—and not just kesar-elaichi-badam, we will be successful, not in spite of being in India but because of being in India. We have the perfect storm of upwardly mobile, aspirational, well-travelled Indians willing to spend.”

And yet, the gap between brand hype and usage in India’s best kitchens still exists. “Masque in Mumbai uses Mason & Co and will point it out all the time—proof that the bean-to-bar concept and focus on Indian cacao has had more impact in the PR space than the F&B space,” says Bakhtiani.  “It’s the cool, new kid that everyone wants to collaborate with. But how much of the packaging and branding makes a brand homegrown? If everything homegrown was considered luxury, then even the marzipan Bandra aunties make for Christmas would be considered luxury.” 

He adds, “Those making desi-flavoured chocolates are just doing lip service. Because who is really getting the amplification brought about by homegrown brands? I’m all for supporting homegrown brands, but it can be done quietly—let’s not pat ourselves on the back unnecessarily, because it’s not charity.” 

Yet, the interest in Indian artisanal chocolate has changed how many Indians experience dessert. Homegrown speciality is no longer just about tradition, it’s about origin, ingredients, and technique. The idea of chocolate as a cheap, sugary treat has given way to something else entirely. You’ll never see chocolate as just an indulgence ever again.