A chocolaty Christmas, rooted in India

Yule log, gingerbread cookies, apple-cinnamon pie, hot chocolate loaded with marshmallows, eggnog and more. Christmas is incomplete without these classic treats. 

But, if you are looking for something different to sweeten your holiday season, try some raspberry and chilli chocolate popcorn. Or maybe white chocolate infused with moringa and lemon.

A host of Indian chocolatiers are experimenting with quirky flavours and promising the bean-to-bar sensory experience on our shores. Here are some such brands to choose from.

Paul And Mike

Here’s the brand that has won India’s first-ever gold at the International Chocolate Awards. It has proved to the world what it always believed in – that great chocolates can be made in India. 

Headquartered in Kerala, it grows and ferments cocoa on its own farms in Kochi and Coimbatore. It also sources wet cocoa beans from progressive farmers in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Must try: Milk Chocolate Coated Salted Capers, which won gold at the International Chocolate Awards 2024. It combines tangy-salty capers from Ishka farms with milk chocolate. Plucked from bushes, capers do taste like olives but are more lemony and tangy.

They also have the Christmas Wonder Bar, a medley of marshmallows, crispy crunchies, chewy gummies, crunchy candy cane, and a moulded chocolate Christmas tree, in milk chocolate. 

Chitra’m Craft Chocolates

This brand has won the International Chocolate Awards thrice and is known best for infusing single-estate cacao beans with quintessentially Indian flavours and spices to create artisanal bars. 

Must try: Its moringa & lemon white chocolate is a medley of two unique flavours that blend together to create a stunning sensory experience. You may also want to try the mango lassi milk chocolate and the masala chaas white chocolate.  

Manam

This is yet another Indian craft chocolate drawing the attention of chocolate connoisseurs. Manam works with over 100 cacao farmers, driving progressive farm practices with scientific fermentation and drying processes. The brand already has over 250 products across 45 categories and calls it “just the beginning.”

And if you happen to be in Hyderabad around Christmas then make sure to visit the Manam Chocolate Karkhana, a chocolatiering extravaganza spread over 10,000 square feet which was featured in TIME’s annual list of the World’s Greatest Places 2024.

Must try: The Holiday Treats tin – cookies and candied orange inclusion tablet, almond praline clusters, raspberry and chilli chocolate popcorn, sea salt cacao nibs, crispy caramel thins and more, all in one box. 

There’s also their signature tablets which include chai biscuit, mint and matcha, coconut and almond. 

The Whole Truth 

If you are looking for something truly healthy, here’s a brand that’s truly wholesome. The chocolates are sweetened with dates and have minimal ingredients, some variants consisting of just two.

The brand started with a single-origin Kerala bean, fermented, roasted and winnowed before being married to the sweet date. It urges you to indulge but mindfully. Which is why every single bar is divided into different sizes, from XS to XXL.   

Must try: Badaaaam which has 25 percent almonds and 75 percent chocolate. And nothing else. 

Subko Cacao

This one is another pod-to-bar experience that uses cacao from different regions in India including the West Godavari region in Andhra Pradesh, Mangalore in Karnataka, Konathedy in Kerala and Pollachi in Tamilnadu.

Must try: Chocolate-coated specialty espresso beans, a crunchy cacao treat coated with single-origin espresso beans from Project Sankalp Garo Hills in Meghalaya. There’s also Subko Cacao’s white chocolate infused with desi ghee and curry leaves from Maharashtra and coated around roasted salted cashews from Andhra, besides the Himalayan pink salt infused 65% dark chocolate bar.

Mason & Co

This brand works closely with farmers and co-operatives in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to source cacao directly and ethically from farms that have been certified to be organic by USDA, EU and India Organic.

It uses the organic certification process to ensure traceability and transparency of the cacao it uses to make chocolates that claim to be free of preservatives or chemicals. 

Must try: Coconut milk dark chocolate, black sesame and black currant dark chocolate and rosemary and sea salt dark chocolate.

The lead image shows a collection of chocolates. The sweet treats are quintessential to Christmas celebrations. (Photo courtesy: Canva)