Inside India's Craft Chocolate Factory

Homegrown artisanal chocolate makers are taking on the might of Cadbury, Lindt, Ferrero, and Hershey's

- Neha Bhatt

Not Belgian. Not French. Not Swiss. This is Indian craft chocolate.

Manam Chocolate's tagline leaves little doubt about its distinctly homegrown origins, and it plays out in every corner of its new experiential store at Delhi's upscale Eldeco Centre.

Molten couverture chocolate (high-quality chocolate rich in cocoa butter) flows through rows of overhead pipes; pastry chefs temper chocolate live behind glass walls, and impressionist-style artwork dots the sleek interiors, depicting farmers in the lush Theobroma cacao plantations of West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, from where Manam Chocolate sources its beans.

There's a chocolate beverage bar, a cafe and a make-your-own-tablet station, while footage from Manam Chocolate's factory and headquarters in Hyderabad streams across wall-mounted screens. Shelves are stacked with dozens of varieties of single-origin couverture chocolate bars with varying cacao content, dark to white, colorful bonbons, and all manner of pastries.

A "Manam classroom" hosts chocolate-tasting and flavor-profiling workshops.

The word Manam—meaning "us" in Telugu—is engraved across the ceiling in multiple regional scripts. The message is clear: this is India's craft chocolate moment.

Manam Chocolate is part of a growing wave of artisanal chocolate makers in India—alongside brands such as Paul and Mike, Bon Fiction, Naviluna, Cocoacraft, Soklet, The Whole Truth, Darkins, and Mason & Co, that are building a market for premium Indian chocolate. These home-grown brands are emerging as luxury indulgences, while challenging the long-held dominance of foreign brands, including Lindt, Ferrero, Hershey's and Cadbury.

Backed by sharp branding and origin-led storytelling, these labels work with locally sourced Indian cacao, and small-batch, artisanal methods to highlight the bean's natural flavors—steering clear of vanilla, artificial additives, or excessive refined sugar common in mainstream chocolate.