An Analysis of the Chocolate in India

This post, as well as talking about my experiences with Indian chocolate, I will be speaking about how Indian chocolate differs from the other chocolates I've tasted in terms of flavor and appearance based on the info I gathered during my two-week long trip to India to visit family.

There happened to be a chocolatier, Country of Origin, right next to the first place we stayed at, so one morning I went there. It was more of a bakery than a chocolatier, much like Artisanal Goods by CAR, but this time all of the baked goods were centered around chocolate, whereas at CAR, the pastries were all composed of different flavors. Nevertheless, there were some chocolates, so I tried some, and was immediately struck by how different the flavors were from other places I've been, like Hawai'i.

First off, the chocolate was much darker. Now I originally tacked this up to something like a darker roast, but once I tasted it, there was nothing that suggested that. My next assumption was that there was something else in the chocolate that was causing the color, but if there was, I couldn't taste it. I later realized it was simply due to the fact that cacao beans harvested from India were generally darker in color. India is very hot during the summer and extremely rainy during the fall-winter season (called monsoon season), which is almost perfect conditions for growing cacao.

Next, the flavor was quite coffee-like, with a lot of bitter notes. What surprised me, though, is that once I got past the bitterness, I was hit with a whole host of floral notes, like rose, orange blossom, and even lavender, which is bizarre. I still don't really know why this is, seeing as India is closer to the equator than most cacao-growing countries, like the Central American countries (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize). My best guess is that the way they conched it was different, but that's just a theory.

About a week later, we returned to the same place after driving around in the mountainy regions and visiting temples. This time, we drove out further to an excellent Italian restaurant that to this day ranks easily in my top three meals of all time. However, we had to wait for a good hour before it opened, so we walked around and subsequently found a very tiny chocolatier nestled in between a tea shop and something else that escapes my memory.

Their name was La Folie, and they had a very classic display case of bonbons. I picked some out, including some very interesting flavors, like Yuzu Caramel and Japanese Togarashi Passion Fruit Almond Ganache with Orange Zest Praline. I got a box of twelve, and as it happens, there were five of us waiting for the Italian place to open and seven doing who knows what back at the place we were staying at, which makes twelve. With this in mind, I selected the chocolates based on what I knew about everyone, taking into consideration everything from personal taste to emotions.

As they were bonbons, the chocolate was difficult to judge. I instead chose to judge the fillings, which ranged from classic (Sea Salt Caramel) to unheard of (Japanese Togarashi Passion Fruit Almond Ganache with Orange Zest Praline). In my experience, the strange flavors (see my previous post) are usually good, because people don't usually throw random things into a ganache without thinking long and hard about how they fit together.

The way I see it, every sauce, dip, topping, and filling must meet criteria based on whatever the food one is trying to complement is. For ganache (trying to complement chocolate in this case), there must be acidity, sweetness, a mild hint of salt and/or spice, and richness. In the case of Sea Salt Caramel, a classic filling for a bonbon, sea salt provides saltiness and mild acidity, which is boosted by the caramel, which adds sweetness and richness, satisfying the criteria.

I returned to the US with a deepened understanding of Indian conching processes, how to fashion a sauce/dip/topping/ganache/anything else that complements a chosen dish, and the knowledge that the trip was entirely worth it, both because it was mango season, and because there was chocolate.

This is half of the first of two display cases at Country of Origin (COO). The chocolate is in the back, and I am looking at jarred cakes, a very interesting concept. I love to bake, so these were good to look at to get an idea of what was required for them.

This is me at La Folie, thinking about the selections I was making. The bottommost one that you can see all nine of is the one with the ridiculously long name that I will not type again. Each one had a flavor that was very different from the bonbons in the US with a few exceptions. Such were Extreme Mint, which lived up to its name, the really long named one, and Lime Hazelnut Custard.