Raising the (chocolate) bar

How craft chocolate is quietly winning hearts and taste buds

- VAISHALI DAR

ATTENDING A CHOCOLATE profiling session with Chaitanya Muppala is an experience in itself. The founder and CEO of Manam, India's first craft chocolate brand based in Hyderabad, not only tells you how to truly enjoy a craft chocolate but also offers flavourful notes that linger on, long after you've left the place. Sample this: "You let it (chocolate) melt on your tongue and not bite. If you eat chocolate too fast, the nuanced flavour notes won't fully develop."

"Every bean has a story to tell," adds Muppala, India's first and only level-3 certified chocolate taster from the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting in the US, who was recently in attendance at his brand's newly opened store-cum-café in the national capital.