When I first started creating my chocolates in 2011, I wanted to use Indian-origin cacao for my chocolate products but we did not have at the time. The farmers in South India were not getting any profits in producing Indian cacao and no one was buying covertures. They also did not ferment or roast correctly and the little chocolate that was produced tasted raw and acidic. Most of the "chocolate" then sold in the market was not chocolate but compound.
In July 2011, I attended the Fine Food trade show in Delhi where I met with the distributors of Belgian chocolate. At the time they were only selling to large institutions and the minimum quantity was ten kilograms, which was very expensive to start with. They also needed a VAT which I did not have as a self-starter.
However, within six months, I was prepared to make that investment and bought my first bag of coverture. It was an enormous bag that I somehow squeezed into the lowest fruit tray of the refrigerator in my parent's apartment where I was staying.
By then I had learned how to temper via YouTube videos and a senior bakery chef who I met through a friend. Slowly over time, I perfected tempering and started making recipes for fillings. However, in the fall of 2012, I successfully created shelf-stable fillings with brews of teas, flowers, spices, and herbs without adding any invertase, corn syrup, or butter. From there, my contemporary Indian and world artisan chocolate collection took shape. It was inspired by the foods I grew up with in the countries I lived in, but primarily by the Indian culture, festivals, and local foods that were close to my heart. https://youtu.be/MUb3dkLGddo?si=wqQm0ycUUAQ54Wnr
Over the next few years, I still searched for Indian cacao farmers and bought cacao from a few upcoming Indian brands, but either the taste still tasted raw or they were too thick to make bonbons with.
In 2018, I was contacted by a farmer in Mangaluru, and he shipped his samples. This time I liked the chocolate and within a few months of trials, created a new collection of single-origin organic Indian cacao.
A year later, I got a chance to visit the farm in Bajpe, Karnataka, and study the processes of chocolate making. It was pouring the first two days but managed to interview the owner and visit the acres of India's oldest cacao farm.
The first farm is an 8.5-acre farm where cocoa has been growing organically for over 52 years. The land has never seen any usage of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Its not certified as they don't get any incentive for doing so, as Campco, the company they sell to, do not differentiate between organic and non-organic. The farm also has a 100-year-old house that is fully furnished, which is on Airbnb to fetch some extra income.
The second farm is 35-acre farm, but cocoa is only grown in a small part of the farm which is about 3 acres,
The cacao lants were introduced in the region by CPCRI which is the government cocoa research facility in Vittal, Dakshina Kannada. For every coconut plant that farmers planted, they were told by the government to plant five cacao trees.
Cadbury's used to buy wet beans from the farmers and it seemed like a good crop for a while. Until 1984 it worked out for the farmers, but then the factory was locked down due to some internal problems and there was no one to buy cocoa for a couple of years. So the majority of the farmers cut down all their trees to replace them with something that would give them some income. But they didn't cut down their trees as they helped reduce water evaporation.
Then in the mid 1980s Campco which is a co-operative dealing with areca, pepper, etc, bought the Cadbury factory and started to process cocoa but they started buying the produce at 10% of what Cadbury used to buy the produce for. Having no alternative option, they sold produce to Campco until a couple of years ago. Watch full movie here:
After a lot of research, learning, and experimentation, they started to process the produce on their own and make chocolate. This is the chocolate I bought.
This is really amazing. Loved the video too!