What’s your earliest chocolate memory? Was it unwrapping that iconic purple Cadbury your sibling gave you on Rakhi, or savouring the M&Ms and Toblerones brought home by NRI relatives on their annual visits? Amid the rich variety of Indian sweets from every corner of the country, chocolate has always stood out.

For years, chocolate in India largely meant mass-produced, sweetened bars, far removed from the complexity of the cacao bean they came from. The nuances of cocoa's rich, bitter, and varied flavour profiles were missing. It was not until the 2000s and 2010s that darker, more intense chocolates began carving out a niche, catering to an adult palate. Still, chocolate did not feel Indian. It remained an indulgence from foreign lands.

But as premiumisation and conscious eating become central to urban lifestyles, that perception is beginning to shift. While revenue in India’s chocolate confectionery segment is still estimated to just be $1.64 billion in 2025, the projected annual growth rate for the market is expected to remain at 6.04% through 2030.

India may now be on the cusp of its own craft chocolate movement, similar to what the country has already witnessed with artisanal coffee and craft liquor. One brand betting big on this transformation is Manam Chocolate, a tree-to-bar Indian chocolate company that is tapping into the country’s evolving and increasingly discerning chocolate demand. Recently, Chaitanya Muppala-led Manam Chocolate opened its first experience centre in North India, in Delhi’s Eldeco Centre.

“We are a retail-forward gifting brand. A brand which wants to position chocolate as a product, [strategically] which can be used for gifting,” says Muppala, a Stanford graduate who started Manam Chocolate in 2021. His family owns Hyderabad’s famous Almond House.

Problems with Indian cacao farming

Cacao farming in India has long been an unstructured and undervalued process. Introduced only in the 1960s by industrial players focused on productivity, Muppala shares that the crop was never developed for its flavour complexity. As a result, farming practices remained basic, often driven by volume rather than quality.

Typically, farmers harvest cacao pods, break them open, and stuff the beans into sacks. These are left under trees for a couple of days before undergoing arbitrary sun-drying for three to four days. Without any standardisation or post-harvest protocols, beans vary widely in quality. Middlemen purchase these poorly processed beans at prices 30–40% lower than international commodity rates, with payments often delayed by weeks. Farmers shoulder the entire processing burden and still earn the least.

Now, Manam Chocolate first, sources its cacao from Distinct Origins, its agribusiness sister company that works directly with farmers in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari region. At its in-house fermentery, the company controls post-harvest processing including fermenting and drying beans to bring out their full flavour potential. These beans are then sent to the Manam Chocolate Karkhana in Hyderabad, listed among Time’s Greatest Places in 2024, where they are crafted into chocolate. The Karkhana is also an immersive space where visitors can watch the chocolate-making process, taste creations, and explore cacao's journey from bean to bar.

This way, Muppala and Co set out to flip the broken system of cacao farming.

“In our system, our truck goes to the farm on harvest day, we have quality control on (the) harvest. We calculate on an equivalency basis the price per fruit, which is an agreement with the farmer based on (the) yield that we get from a sample. A purchase receipt is generated digitally and shared on WhatsApp immediately and the money is in (their) account within 24 hours along with the bank transaction certificate from the bank,” says Muppala.

This triple-incentive model with higher prices, no processing burden, and instant payouts, has drawn over 200 contract farmers in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari region to partner with the company.

Muppala spent four years building Manam before launching. The company also tackles the challenge of improving flavour. Since India’s cacao varieties are designed for yield, not taste, Manam has invested in long-term genetic improvement—a 12-year process involving regulatory clearances.

“While we do that, we have built technology including software systems and sensor driven post-harvest processing systems that allow us to use data and science to compensate for the lack of fine flavoured genetics in Indian cacao, which really involved post processing,” says Muppala.

And at the brand’s Eldeco Centre store, the journey from tree to bar unfolds visually as soon as you walk in. Ruby Islam, head chef and chocolatier at Manam Chocolate, plays a key role in shaping this experience. Having worked with ITC Hotels, Ruby has been instrumental in developing over 300 chocolate experiences across 50 categories, blending local West Godavari cacao with bold, unexpected flavour pairings.

Building multiple verticals and focus on retail expansion

While the Indian craft chocolate movement is gaining visibility, building a sustainable business remains challenging, especially in a market dominated by legacy brands. Manam Chocolate, however, is focused on carving a premium niche—especially in gifting.

Manam's gift boxes feature impressionist-style illustrations of farms and farmers, offering not just chocolate, but an immersive, story-driven experience. The brand positions itself as retail-first and gifting-led, with 55–60% of current revenue coming from chocolate and gifting sales.

Yet, Manam’s D2C strategy is going to be backed by Distinct Origins B2B vertical. The agri-business vertical of Distinct Origins will remain focused on cacao sourcing and exports. The company recently had also tied up with a Swiss maker for exporting its West Godavari cacao beans. Muppala declined to name the maker. Meanwhile, the plan is also to serve the HORECA segment (hotels, restaurants, chefs) offering fine flavour craft chocolate.

“We are primarily building out multiple businesses, one is the agri-side business [with Distinct Origins], we have begun our export business of cacao. The second is the consumer business of chocolate. But before we get there, we're building out chocolate as a HORECA product – craft chocolate made from fine flavour beans for hotels, restaurants, chefs. Then that chocolate becomes a product at Manam chocolate that we market as product and experiences indulgence, gifting, snacking, drinking sold through experiences that are primarily retail-driven,” says Muppala.

The plan for the company’s retail consumer business includes developing more high-experience stores like the Manam Chocolate Karkhana in Hyderabad and the Delhi’s Eldeco Centre’s store, QSR-style outlets in airports and metro stations including beverage bars, with one already operational in Hyderabad. Muppala adds that the company is equally focused on building its E-commerce (D2C) distribution strategy aside from offering specialised gifting for weddings and events.

The company has invested around $4 million of its own capital and recently raised an additional $4 million in a pre-Series A round from marquee investors, including family offices and HNIs.

While capital-intensive, especially on the retail side, Manam sees its complex, multi-pronged business model as a strength.

“It is capital intensive, as far as the retail expansion is concerned, but now nearly 55% of our revenue comes from chocolate and gifting, so that's primarily what we're after. I understand that generally people tend to shy away from complexity, but we enjoy complexity. We've built complex business models so that there are MOATS [company's competitive advantage] and barriers to enter for others but also give us that leeway of creating very differentiated consumer experiences, products that are not easy to copy or mimic,” says Muppala.

For now, craft chocolate may be a promising niche, but long-term sustainability will hinge on building strong customer loyalty, especially in a market where consumption still lags behind traditional Indian sweets.