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Chocing it up to taste: craft chocolate festival in Bengaluru to celebrate homegrown brands

The rich, creamy taste of chocolate melting on the tongue blends with the sweet memories of birthdays, Valentines days, anniversaries and holidays we hold dear whether your treat of choice is bitter and dark, creamy and milky or nut-filled and full of surprising textures. While most people may think of Belgian or Swiss chocolates as being the best you can get, in recent years, Indian craft chocolate has emerged and wooed the palates of Indian chocolate lovers. The Indian Cacao and Craft Chocolate Festival, set to be held this weekend, seeks to bring together craft chocolate brands from all over the country. But what makes craft chocolate so special? Ketaki Churi, the co-founder of The Indian Cacao and Craft Chocolate Festival answers that it lies in making an ethical choice while also prioritising health and quality. There is an abundance of nuanced flavours that get overwhelmed in mass produced chocolate because of heavy sweetening and artificial flavouring. Cacao is also a superfood with numerous health benefits; craft chocolate makers often use the highest quality beans purchased at higher prices from farmers, compared to the lower quality beans purchased at cheap prices by mass brands. She adds, The festival is a celebration where one can experience how chocolate is made, try different kinds of chocolate from brands across India and stock up on chocolate for the whole year! The chocolate available at the festival is bean to bar (brands who purchase cacao beans) and farm to bar (brands that grow their own cacao), with over 50 workshops catering to everyone from cacao farmers, chocolatiers, culinary students, to curious kids and Bengalureans with a sweet tooth. This is with the aim of facilitating an understanding of the processes behind craft chocolate and cultivating an appreciation for it, apart from just sampling the treats. Some highlights are a cheese and chocolate tasting session and a tea and chocolate pairing session. There are also a lot of events specifically for kids so they can understand what real chocolate is all about, says Churi. Other workshops include ones on making your own craft chocolate, tracing the history of cacao, and learning how to start your own chocolate brand. Over four years, the festival has grown into a place for people involved in different steps of the chocolate making process to collaborate. This year will showcase the fruits of two of these collaborations. Pascati from Mumbai and Grover Wines from Bengaluru are collaborating on a new chocolate bar which they will launch at the festival and which people can taste only here. We also have a brand called Bon Fiction from Andhra Pradesh collaborating with Dona Aideau, a tea sommelier from Assam, to make tea-infused chocolate, also available only at the festival. Pastry chefs are also coming in with desserts made with craft chocolate that are usually not available on their menu or their shops. (The festival will be held at Sabha, Kamaraj Road on December 5, 6, and 7. Timings vary. For details and tickets, visit craftchocolateindia.com)