India chocolate

10 India chocolates from 4 independent UK chocolatiers, from £11.

India is one of chocolate’s most exciting new frontiers. Almost all its cacao grows in the southern states — Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh — often intercropped in coconut and areca plantations. A wave of homegrown bean-to-bar makers has driven rapid quality gains, and Indian cacao now shows real personality: bright tropical fruit, tamarind, dried mango and warm spice over a fudgy base. The country’s “farm-to-bar” makers keep everything in-region, giving tight traceability. For UK buyers, a single-origin Indian bar is a genuine discovery — distinctively fruity and spiced, unlike the usual Latin American profiles — and a taste of a scene that has grown from almost nothing in barely a decade.