CHOCOLATE FANTASIES

The pandemic did nothing to deter India’s chocolate market and new brands have popped up to cater to a variety of palates and occasions

- Shweta Bhandral

In school, I remember getting chocolate as a prize for winning a competition or for scoring full marks. Thanks to effective marketing, big brands such as Cadbury, Nestle and Amul were able to replace our traditional Indian sweets with their products. In fact, chocolate is the most popular confectionery item in India; more than 61 percent of Indians are frequent consumers and at least 55 percent of these are women, says a study by market intelligence agency Mintel.

The chocolate market is expected to grow in double digits in the coming few years, driven by entrepreneurs who are focusing on the Indian bean and experimenting with flavours. The pandemic, somehow, did not deter this segment. New brands and products continued to tempt Indian consumers.

One of the most recent is Colocal, a new brand of craft chocolate made with cacao from Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Craft chocolate or bean-to-bar chocolate is expensive because it is manufactured in small lots, the beans are high grade, and processing machines are also costly. So, the brand decided to not only make chocolates but also give their consumers an experience of making chocolate. Sheetal Saxena, co-founder of Colocal, says, “We wanted people to visit and experience the whole chocolatemaking process in a beautiful ambience along with some great food and service. That’s why we opened a chocolate factory with a café and dining out place in Delhi.”