Lassi, moringa, pepper: A Coimbatore man is winning awards by infusing Indian flavours in chocolates
As published in Scroll on 24, February 2019.
In November 2018, Arun Viswanathan decided to enter the finals of the International Chocolate Awards in Italy. It had been just five months since he had launched his bean-to-bar chocolate brand,
For Viswanathan, the award was “way beyond” his expectations. At the same time, it was a validation of his ambitions and long-abiding love for chocolates. He had realised way back in 2010 that he wanted to become a chocolatier, while he was still studying food science at Cornell University. Even before Chitra’m, he had started two entrepreneurial ventures, both centred on chocolate. With the new brand, he wanted to demonstrate the versatility of Indian produce through flavour combinations. As the 29-year-old put it, “We are using cocoa as the canvas and the flavour infusions as the colours.”
Chitra’m, which means portrait in Tamil, is named after Viswanathan’s mother, who came up with the initial idea. She saw a workshop being conducted by Viswanathan for Cocoa Town, a US organisation that helps set up bean-to-bar chocolate facilities, “and immediately wanted to create something similar for Indian cocoa”. His mother alas couldn’t see her vision come to life – she died soon after.
For Chitra’m, Viswanathan sources cocoa from three farmers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Natural flavours are infused during the grinding process. No artificial stabilisers, preservatives or flavourings are used, nor any vegetable oils incorporated. The chocolates are processed in small batches – anywhere between 1kg and 10kg. “Including flavours with white milk or dark chocolate is where my specialisation in chocolate-making comes into place,” said Viswanathan. “I am also a certified chocolate taster.”
Viswanathan and his eight-member team currently manufacture Chitra’m chocolates in a small facility located behind his cafe in Coimbatore, Infusions-Chocolate Redefined. “Ninety per cent of our chocolate-making process is manual,” he explained. “Depending on the quantity, we take about 2-3 days to produce one batch.” The produce is packaged in his mother’s favourite colours – red, blue and purple – and the covers feature an ornate peacock emblem, which was hand-drawn by one of his employees.
Viswanathan is a member of a growing tribe of craft chocolatiers in India. While major players such as Mondelez India Foods Private Limited, Ferrero India Private Limited and Nestlé India continue to hold sway in an industry that’s predicted to grow at 16%, the number of small batch chocolate-makers is on the rise. Among them are Bean Therapy, Mason & Co.,
Gaining experience
After completing his Bachelor’s in biotechnology, Viswanathan was selected for a Cornell-Tamil Nadu Agricultural University dual degree master’s programme with full scholarship. While he was at Cornell, he visited “Hershey’s and the New York Chocolate show”, experiences that helped him understand how science and creativity could be applied to chocolate-making.
Convinced that working in the food industry was his calling, Viswanathan spent six months in Bengaluru, studying baking, and then went on to do an internship at The Chocolate Line in Belgium. He moved back to India and set up his first venture – Ganache For Da Chocoholics – in 2014, which specialised in fusion chocolates and chocolate fillings with Indian flavours. During a 2016 trip to the US, Viswanathan spent time exploring bean-to-bar chocolate companies in San Francisco, and decided he wanted to set up a café that introduced people to the different sides of chocolate. He returned to India and started the groundwork for Infusions.
Despite studying and working in different cities and countries, Viswanathan was certain that Coimbatore would be the centre for his entrepreneurial ventures. The decision, he says, was motivated by personal and professional reasons. “There are many cocoa farmers around the city,” he said. “Also, I knew exactly whom to approach for various resources. In a new place, I would have had to establish connections. People here have been extremely supportive of my endeavour.” Apart from sourcing from local farmers, he has been conducting workshops in collaboration with Cocoa Town to introduce the farmers to newer technologies and processes.
Viswanathan’s future plans include taking his café to Chennai and Bengaluru by the end of this year, and making Chitra’m chocolates available in restaurants and cities across India. He is expanding his product line by including nutty chocolate spreads and incorporating fruity and floral infusions in his chocolates. Meanwhile, he is keeping an eye on people’s willingness to experiment with chocolate in their cuisine. At his cafe, the menu features dishes like paneer tikka with a marinade of cacao, as well as cacao aioli garlic bread, which has a cacao-infused garlic sauce. The idea, he says, was to make people understand the broader scope of chocolate – that it can interpreted in as many ways as your imagination allows.
For more information visit Chitra’m Craft Chocolates.
This article has been edited by Scroll.
Featured Image Courtesy: Chitra’m Craft Chocolates