This Indian Chocolate Factory Makes Time's "World's Greatest Places" List

At Hyderabad's "Manam Chocolate Karkhana," you can purchase exquisite chocolates made in India along with a narrative. It's a fascinating tale of how that chocolate, which is made from Indian cacao that is farmed in West Godavari farms, came to be the store's most sought-after item, and the credit goes to all of the people who helped make this happen. The term Manam, which translates to "us" or "we" in Telugu, refers to this group of people, which includes farmers, women who gather and prepare the pod, fermenters, chocolatiers, and chocolate makers.

This retail store and chocolate factory experience centre received validation when Time Magazine listed it as one of the top 100 greatest places to visit in the world in 2024. The Banjara Hills factory-retail store in Hyderabad has a facade that is modelled after a chocolate bar. A robust scent of roasted chocolate beans beckons you inside, where chocolate lovers will find their utopia. You have so many options. There are more than 300 products in more than 50 categories, ranging from chocolate bars, tablets, bonbons, palettes, truffles, and gelato to an infinite world of confections with cakes, cups, loaf cakes, macarons, drinks, snacks, shortbread cookies, and viennoiserie.

Chaitanya Muppala, the founder, is the Indian Willy Wonka here. His mission is to bring chocolate made from Indian cacao to Indians and the rest of the world. He explains why you should try Indian craft chocolate, which has already won 17 international awards in less than a year of being on the market.

"I'm trying to convince the world that chocolate grows on trees and does not come from a fridge or a supermarket. We want to dispel our fascination with European labels, such as Swiss, Belgian, and French, and establish a reputation for Indian cacao, demonstrating that we can make world-class, award-winning international standard chocolate with Indian cacao. The attempt is to get complexity and flavour from the bean and express that through various techniques of craft in chocolate. As against commodity or industrial cacao, the attempt is to wipe the bean clear of everything and then induce flavour through the industrial process or additive. Here, when we roast the beans, we try to create a balance of bitterness, astringency, and acidity. The bean is cracked to make nibs that are still palatable and yummy because it is a fine-flavoured cacao bean."

"All chocolate is traceable down to the tree; the barks have the farmer's name printed on them, and we have a QR code if you scan it. It takes you to that farm that grew that cacao in that bar. Contrast that with European chocolate, which gets its cacao from the Ivory Coast and Ghana, where there is an inequitable history of the coloniser who eats the chocolate and the colony that grows it," he adds.

Manam Chocolate intends to expand into multiple metro cities across the country over the next three years, with the ultimate goal of becoming a premium global brand that tells the story of Indian chocolate craft.