The silver lining

It was the British who sowed the first cacao beans in South Indiamdashmainly Kerala Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh In the last decade homegrown craft chocolatiers have led the conversation to retelling the beantobar storymdashMason and Co 2015 to Pascati 2015 and Soklet 2015A fairly new entrant Paul amp Mike has been doing somehaha silent but headturning work in Kochi After studying the cacao farming practices in Latin America Vikas Temani launched his craft chocolate brand wwwpaulandmikeco in 2019 with the backing of SynthiteFresh cacao beanIn its third year it has managed to bag Indiarsquos first winmdasha silver in the World Finals at the International Chocolate Awards which was founded in 2012 and is run by a group of independent international partners based in the UK Italy and the USAThe winning flavour is a vegan 64 per cent dark Sichuan pepper and orange peel bar made with Muscovado sugar A flavour originally created for the China market in 2019 it has done fairly well in India too Temani tells us over a phone call from KochiAlso Read Sweet dreams are made of thisAlongside the world finals winner their Alphonso mango bagged a bronze at the APAC level The first bar from the brand this writer tried was Jamun it won a bronze at the same awards in 2019 in the Asia Pacific Category with a unique combination of tropical Indian produce ldquoEveryone is doing a blueberry and cranberry but we have a whole gamut of fruits and spices in India that remain unexploredrdquo says TemaniThe drying and fermentation process for cacao beansPaul amp Mike has its own cocoa farms in Kochi and Coimbatore and Temani sources wet cacoa beans from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh too ldquoThis is to control the drying and fermentation process as it is what brings out the complex fruity and spicy notesrdquoWhile the line includes Indianinspired flavours like sitaphal peanut chikki and organic jaggery it also uses international ingredients ldquoWe want to offer offbeat novel offerings with unique foreign ingredientsmdashItalian Piedmont hazelnut and a Balkan rose Indian chocolate lovers want a little bit of everything from classic plain and fruit and nut to the exoticrdquo he adds With the parent company owning an RampD set up Temani has involved food technicians and PhD leadership to help curate the flavoursAlso Read Divine creativityApart from a store website there isnrsquot much about Paul amp Mike online except a quote from the makers here and there ldquoWe think there is still time for that publicity We are fully focussed on creating the best chocolatesrdquoTheir recent collaborations have been with craft beer brand Simba The two created a pairing of chocolate with Simba beer Here they have used the dark stout with notes of espresso and cacao and blended it with dark caramel in their chocolateAlphonso mangoIn the pipeline is a highprotein low calorie lifestyle range for Keto dieters drinking chocolate snacking chocolate barks and super intense dark chocolates to give Lindtrsquos muchloved dense dark chocolate the takkar ldquoIndia is not a chocolateexpert country We have been applying for the awards every year for a reality check to get a sense of where we stand We are learning to gauge what they want from India They want to see a reflection of our country in the bar A touch of local produce and culture Taiwan for that matter has done it beautifully It is not a chocolateforward country but they have been able to make a dent on the international chocolate map well Wersquoll get there toordquoAlso Read Heres how to make the lightest sponge cake ever