Bean-to-bar: Why consumers and companies are eager to try new chocolate recipes
Chocolate has to be the one food that unites people, if there is one. Despite the fact that civilizations may have different cuisines, chocolate’s universal appeal has allowed friendships and relationships to flourish all around the globe. But chocolate consumption is gradually evolving into a mindful activity that includes consumers understanding more about the origins of their chocolate.
Not only has the world’s perception of chocolate changed in recent years, but India has seen a local shift as well. “Bean-to-bar chocolate” is a term that is being used a lot to describe this transformation. In order to comprehend the hype around the idea—which is associated with phrases like “farm-to-bar” and “tree-to-bar”—Midday consulted with chocolatiers. These basically boil down to a more customized strategy where the brand handles every stage, from purchasing the cocoa beans to creating the last chocolate bar.
Farm-to-bar chocolate company Paul and Mike is situated in Kochi, and its creator and business director, Vikas Temani, says, “Bean-to-bar is where you take the dried bean and roast it, grind it, and add sugar, milk, and flavors to it.” But when it comes to farm-to-bar, there are additional procedures that need to be completed, generally in the vicinity of the farm, even before the dried cocoa bean is ready. The fruit’s seed is then broken off, placed in wooden boxes for fermentation, and dried. These are also highly important measures. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose the fermentation method you’ll use to change the fruit’s flavor as well as when to harvest the fruit at what point it has reached ripeness.
In the past five years, this way of producing chocolate has given birth to a number of local businesses that are actually adding spice and everything wonderful to chocolate, going beyond the nutty flavors. Nowadays, a lot of customers want to taste unique flavors that chocolatiers, who use large-scale manufacturing methods, would not have considered in the past.
With plans to start in September, The Blue Gourmet, a bean-to-bar chocolate brand located in Mumbai, is joining the trend of creating modern chocolate. Rahul Bajaj, the proprietor of Le Sutra Hospitality, which also owns Out Of The Blue in the city, has launched the new business. Bajaj fell in love with the cacao plant over five years ago, despite the fact that he has just recently debuted. “We completed our homework using cacao from several nations, including the Philippines, India, and the African continent,” he declares. After studying it for a while with his team, he saw the potential of the “gorgeous miracle fruit,” which gave rise to his organic, sustainable, and locally sourced company.
Bajaj looked into acquiring cocoa from south India after searching the globe for the finest and discovering that it could be obtained in his own neighborhood. “We presently get it from a farm in Kerala that grows cocoa specifically for us. He says, “We have been putting a lot of effort into the fermentation and roasting process on our own. After the cacao beans have been fermented and roasted, they are ground using a traditional stone technique to create couverture chocolate. Khandsari sugar, which is made from liquid jaggery, is used in this process. This is for individuals who wish to have chocolate without being sick, even when they also use refined sugar.
Paul and Mike’s fields in Kerala are where the cacao plant is used to begin the process of manufacturing chocolate. Pictured are Paul and Mike.
The Blue Gourmet’s debut coincides with the growing international recognition of Indian chocolate companies. Paul and Mike’s chocolate bar with orange peel and Sichuan pepper earned silver in the International Chocolate Awards a little more than a month ago. Temani, the brand’s creator and business leader, says it was entirely unexpected. The firm is supported by Synthite, a food company located in Kochi that supplies food extracts. But they are becoming more and more proficient with the product.
Since its founding, the little over three-year-old company, which bears the names of two foreign farmers, has actively participated in contests, which Temani claims helps them measure their progress. Temani discovered while doing study that Kerala is a great region for cocoa growers, therefore they were sitting on a gold mine for chocolatiers. Temani’s chocolate-making adventure begins at the farm, whereas Bajaj’s begins at the beans. Even if the words are different, the way they think about it is almost the same since it all comes down to the kind of cocoa you need to produce the chocolate.
Temani clarifies, saying, “We are situated directly in the center of Kerala’s cocoa-growing region. Thus, when it comes to sourcing and quality control from the outset—a crucial aspect when discussing fine-flavor cocoa—we have a geographic edge. He emphasizes the need of managing the timing of harvest and fermentation to get the optimal flavor of cocoa, which is a crucial component in bean-to-bar chocolate. Temani compares the procedure to that of wine-making, which needs constant attention and is fundamentally what guarantees the flawless chocolate bar, in order to make the process understandable to the general public. It’s also the reason he believed they could produce chocolate more skillfully. Synthite’s exports of spices, vanilla, and other items led them to think of experimenting with less specialized flavors like thandai, jamun, Alphonso mango, and sithapal. They plan to release one with guava flavor as well shortly.
Brands like Paul and Mike and The Blue Gourmet are growing in popularity for a reason. They serve customers who want to try different chocolate flavors, along with a number of other brands. We used to believe that only the French could produce excellent wine until about 20 years ago, but globalization has demonstrated that there are many lovely wines produced all over the globe, including some from India that have received awards. Thus, in terms of wine and beer, France’s monopoly has long since dissolved. In every industry, the monopolies have just disappeared.
Temani believes that the bean-to-bar chocolate revolution in India may flourish since it is an investment-friendly venture. “With the use of dosa batter and homemade tools like grinders, one can launch it from the comfort of their own home.” Making bean-to-bar chocolate is considerably simpler for a hobbyist, he claims, adding that it is a common fallacy among the public, including venture investors, that producing this kind of chocolate is costly or complicated.
Among the bigger participants, Mondelez India launched Cocoa Life in 2010, a little more than 55 years after planting Kerala’s first experimental cocoa field. Since then, the program has been expanded to three other states in south India. The international food corporation claims that since then, it has assisted 100,000 farmers in starting cocoa farms throughout the four states. At the moment, they get more than one-third of their cocoa from India.
The bean-to-bar process is an extension of what consumers are searching for, according to Roopak Bhat, Mondelez’s cocoa operations head in India, who highlights the emergence of the educated and aware customer. A bean-to-bar chocolate is made using suitable farming practices that highlight the greatest qualities of the cocoa beans grown in the area. Experts like chocolatiers are engaged at every step, from planting trees with the finest care and picking the fruit when it’s ripe to harvesting and processing. In addition to enhancing the flavor and quality of chocolate, the procedure improves the livelihoods of cocoa farmers by giving their goods the proper market.
“There is no doubt that the bean-to-bar method is expanding and gaining traction among businesses as well as consumers,” he continues. The method has effectively created a sustainable environment from the farm to the refrigerator and constructed a better future for cocoa producers with a specific emphasis on workmanship, quality, flavor, and sustainability.
