Savouring delights at Manam Chocolate: Where flavour-forward cacao surrenders to the tongue, prompting the heart to break into a joyful tune.
Manam Chocolate's tablet collection. (Supplied)
I am in the swanky Banjara Hills neighbourhood, but I feel as though I am on a cacao farm in the West Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh.
I have a feeling that’s exactly what Chaitanya Muppala, the powerhouse behind Manam Chocolate, wants his visitors to feel.
In this chocolate factory, or karkhana as they call it, set within 10,100 square feet, I am torn between lusting over the 250+ chocolate products like barks, tablets, and truffles that are sitting pretty on sleek displays or the pleasure of viewing the mesmerising video relayed from their partner farms in West Godavari District on two large screens — of cacao fruits hanging between banana plantations on languid afternoons, of farmers meticulously at work early in the mornings.
I walk in further and the roastery holds the fort, with the whiff of something smoked but not exactly chocolate-y that we know yet.
Further inside, all the same chocolate — but liquid this time — is flowing from three taps. Smooth and shining, these taps beckon to me, holding up promises of a good time.
It takes all the adult resolve to not run my finger through it and lick it clean. All the resolve. Here I could add roasted almonds or dried orange peels and create my own chocolate bars or what they call tablets.
I spent some more time chatting with Mupalla at the make-your-own chocolate station when he pointed out, “We remember your recipe. So next time you want to gift your friends and family on Diwali or any occasion, we can do it for you. We take care of it all. Our chocolates even have a QR code that tells you which farmer the bean for that particular chocolate came from and the price that was paid. We are a fair trade company.”
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While the chocolate tablet sets, you can help yourself to the nine varieties of hot chocolate here.
You could leave and come back another day but I insist you try this decadent stuff. The depth and variety of offerings at Manam is what distinguishes it from other craft brands. Here the poetry of craft cacao marries the ambition of industrial chocolate.
A learning classroom, confectionery, patisserie, a make-your-own nut butter station, and a coffee shop. Here you can also see the entire winnowing, grinding, conching, and tempering process.
I can’t help but marvel at the space and the artists behind this. This place is a feast for all my senses. It features the entire bean-to-bar journey or as they called it “farm to fermentery” story for every visitor who walks in.
Chaitanya Muppala, Founder, Manam Chocolate. (Supplied)
Their partner farms are about 370 km from Hyderabad. Founder Chaitanya Muppala, a second-generation entrepreneur from the Almond House family, started working on this dream backwards.
He shared, “About four years ago, through our sister concern Distinct Origins, we partnered with over 100 farmers with 1,500+ acres of farms and set up our own fermentary. Most cacao crops in our country are grown for larger conglomerates. We don’t have control over the crop but fermentation is another step where distinct flavour is retained. We follow strict protocols and a scientific method for drying and fermenting.”
As opposed to crude fermenting, which is just leaving it in a cement bag and then adding chemical flavour, here they give the produce the respect it deserves.
“In order to get any flavour out of commercial chocolate, you have to turn up the heat and make it disintegrate, then add back flavour with sugar and essence,” he explained.
I am told craft chocolate isn’t like that. It doesn’t take much for a 43 percent West Godavari cacao to fall apart and succumb to the palette. I tasted the cacao. Not just sugar and vanilla.
One can and must also hear the slight snap. And plopped into a croissant, when the bits that usually hold form wallow away beautifully in the buttery goodness, it forwards the flavour gloriously.
So far, chocolate was a flavour, or at best, a treat. Not anymore. Think malt chocolate truffles made with 43 percent malted milk single origin West Godavari chocolate or a caramelised cacao nib chocolate brownie made with 82 percent dark chocolate from single origin Dominican Republic beans.
By the end of my tour, I perched myself on a beautiful wicker chair in their café, which is also a kind of love letter to cacao by the way. With a live cacao tree next to us and inspired menu options, I am offered a coffee before my chocolate sampling session.
Manam Chocolate’s desserts and pastries. (Supplied)
Again, origin conscious and with a depth of flavour. Sipping our drinks enables more giddy and meaningful conversations.
Sitting on either side of the cold brew, Muppala explained, “Our products are inspired by your childhood favourites. While ours are more decadent and refined, your mind takes you to that beautiful time in your life. Take for instance the black forest pastry, we take a step back from sugars and let the ingredients speak for themselves.”
He elaborated, “Our tres leches has coconut because it’s local to us. The tiramisu here gives the same gold notes that you get in Italy and the roasted banana caramel cookie uses the heirloom Chakkarakeli banana that’s grown at the farms.”
This was the Manam experience for me. Ushering in a new era in the craft chocolate category in India, this karkhana was nothing less than or rather so much more than the brewery and distillery experiences of the Western countries.
Manam Chocolate, like the art of craft cacao, reflects both, beauty, and thought.
To explore Manam’s world, visit Instagram @Manamchocolate or their website www.manamchocolate.com
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