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Manam Chocolate aims to bring premium Indian cacao to 'the world stage'

Craft chocolate brand Manam Chocolate is investing in local expansion and supply chain innovation throughout India as it works to build out the premium reputation of its locally-produced cacao products.

Manam Chocolate launched in 2023 with the opening of its first flagship store in India and has since opened a beverage bar, experiential space, and shop as it works to broaden reach and shift the mindset of domestic and international consumers.

At a glance:

• Indian craft chocolate brand Manam Chocolate is growing fast since opening in 2023.
• Domestic expansion and investment in local supply chains are the current focus.
• The longer-term goal is international expansion and recognition for Indian cacao and chocolate.

“Our mission has always been simple: to prove that Indian cacao, when treated with respect and precision, can stand confidently on the world stage,” said Chaitanya Muppala, founder of Manam Chocolate and CEO of sister cacao firm Distinct Origins.

“The evolution has been from one experiential flagship to a growing set of different formats across cities, backed by a nationwide e-commerce footprint that continues to grow,” Muppala told Ingredients Network.

Understanding the ‘emotional pull’ of a premium Indian chocolate bar

Today, Manam Chocolate produces a range of chocolate tablets, bonbons, clusters, cookies, drinking chocolate, and spreads, shipping products to 122 locations across India via its e-commerce platform and several dedicated stores. It also has a café, patisserie, and cacao bean business arm.

Chocolate and gifting currently represents around 70% of total revenues, up from just 30% when it opened; evolving much faster than anticipated, according to the founder. “That told us we'd underestimated both how ready the consumer was and how strong the emotional pull of chocolate as a premium gifting product already was.”

The company also sees significant potential in chocolate-based beverage offerings for the domestic market, an area it will work to develop further in the coming years.

The company's core consumer, Muppala said, is the “well-travelled, aspirational, urban Indian who is actively seeking new experiences and wants to feel a sense of identity in what they choose, not just consume it”. And that too is fast-evolving, he added.

As engagement in the chocolate category shifts across India, he said consumers have started to show interest in origin, production methods and the intention behind each product. “Younger Indian consumers in particular have surprised us with their curiosity; they want to know what terroir means, they ask about fermentation, they compare tasting notes the way wine drinkers do. They don't see chocolate as confectionery anymore; they see it as an artisanal food product, and that shift gives us real confidence in where this category is headed.”

A spotlight on Indian chocolate

According to Muppala, today there are around 1,000 craft bean-to-bar chocolate makers worldwide and only 50 or so in India. “We're at an early stage of a curve that other categories in India have already climbed,” he said. Gin, Indian single malts and fine cheese have all moved from a mass, price-driven perception to genuine craft recognition in the last decade and chocolate is now following.

Manam Chocolate believes there is a “very unpenetrated market” for chocolate in India, particularly in large urban areas where tier-one consumers are looking for change, the founder said. These consumers are increasingly looking for brands that are “globally benchmarked but locally rooted”, he said, as the concept of premium shifts away from simply being linked to imports.

“When someone tastes the bright fruit notes from our cacao grown in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh or the nutty, rounded profiles from cacao grown in Kerala, they start to see that luxury is about quality and care, and not geography. Indian origins, done with rigour and integrity, are very much becoming part of that luxury conversation.”

For now, India's chocolate market remains dominated by imported brands and is largely still a mass market, not premium, but there are clear opportunities ahead, Muppala said, particularly when you look at chocolate consumption. Per capita consumption of chocolate in India is 200 grams per person per year, for example, compared to 12.75 kilos in the UK. “That gap is the opportunity,” the founder said.

Retail expansion, supply chain focus

Over the next 12 months, the company will focus on expansion into the Delhi National Capital Region, a significant multi-state metropolitan region in Northern India, launching a series of new retail spaces to build on the momentum gained by its existing New Delhi store at the Eldeco Center.

When it comes to innovation, Muppala said the company will continue to invest in its supply chain and craft processing, particularly the cacao fermentation step that it conducts in-house at its own facility, investing in things like sensor-based fermentation and traceability. It will also continue work to strengthen its farm-to-chocolate value chain. “We are deeply invested in the cacao growers and the supply chain. We work with over 200 farmers cultivating more than 3,000 acres of cacao in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India's largest cacao-growing region. This isn't a marketing angle for us; it's the foundation of the business.”

Manam Chocolate, he explained, operates as a collective of farmers, fermenters, chocolate makers, chocolatiers, and storytellers, working to take cacao on a full journey from fruit to confection. “We're not interested in simply replicating what 'premium chocolate' has meant globally; we're building an Indian craft chocolate identity that is born of Indian origin cacao, crafted by Indians, for India and the world.”

And the opportunity to bring Indian chocolate to the world is significant, he said.

International push and launch of 90% Single Origin India bar

Muppala said the longer-term strategy for Manam Chocolate, over the next decade or so, is to build out a global presence in premium chocolate and gifting and become known as the brand that “created and owned the notion of chocolate from India being something worth paying attention to”.

The company will also continue to work on exporting its Indian cacao beans, he said, exporting all of its 'fine flavour' varieties to international markets; an area the company has already had success in. It has already secured an important contract with a major Swiss chocolate brand that is using the company's beans to launch a 90% Single Origin India bar.