How this bean-to-bar chocolate brand is bringing the focus back to native Indian fruits

When boys his age were busy shortlisting colleges to apply to all that 15yearold Digvijaya Singh wanted to do was become a chocolatier This wasnrsquot the original plan he confesses ldquoThis is the time I had completed my Class X and the pandemic had just hit us out of nowhere in March 2020rdquo Singh now 19 tells us over a call from Udaipur where he lives ldquoI wasnrsquot academically inclined and wanted to try out something different But I was also cognisant of the fact that the economy wasnrsquot going to look up for another two years at leastrdquoKeen on taking up a parttime gig he remembers checking for recessionproof industries on Google Thatrsquos how he accidentally landed on chocolates With knowledge being in plenty on the web Singh found himself sinking his teeth into this discovery binging mostly on online chocolate tutorials ldquoI was fascinated with the idea of beantobar chocolates making them directly from cacao beansrdquo he shares The process of sourcing and selecting the beans roasting winnowing conching and temperingmdashas elaborate as it seemedmdashmade him want to give it a shotAt Saraam singleorigin chocolates are paired with baer sitaphal kokum sea buckthorn and karonda among other fruitHis handcrafted chocolate company Saraam is a result of that brainwave ldquoIt started with me experimenting with some samples in the kitchenrdquo says the selftaught chocolatier His cousin Mahaveer Singh and later his aunt Sunita Singh who were taken in by his idea decided to join him ldquoIt took a lot of trial and errorrdquo he shares The brand initially called Sarang became a reality only a year later in July 2021 ldquoAnd our first beantobar batch launched in December 2021rdquoThe beans he says were initially sourced from a farm in Puttur Karnataka ldquoIt is owned by Keshavamurthy who also coruns a treetobar artisanal chocolate brand Koko Pods with his wiferdquo says Singh ldquoHe was quite helpful in my journey and also very encouraging If I had queries he was always happy to help I was glad to be part of such a healthy ecosystemrdquoDigvijaya and Mahaveer Singh cofounders of SaraamInitially selling out of a store in Udaipur the real breakthrough for this threemember team came when Singh attended a farmerrsquos market at Jaajam restaurant last year where he was introduced to Kottarapurath Mohanchandranmdashthe then Area Director of Udaipur and Jodhpur and General Manager of Taj Lake Palace Udaipur and his wife Seema ldquoThey were very keen on promoting local beantobar brands Thatrsquos how Taj onboarded us and stocked our chocolates Had this not happened I would have abandoned my project completely and gone on to pursue higher studiesrdquo he saysSince Singh had just completed his Class XII he decided to take a gap year and invest all his energy into building his new brand which he relaunched as Saraam in July 2022 But in a market already inundated with small batch single origin chocolates Singh was conscious about not creating a brand that was run off the millDilip Nair General Manager of Taj Fateh Prakash Palace suggested he pair the chocolates with ber baer fruit the tiny round somewhat sweet and sour plum also known as Indian jujube ldquoI had never heard of this pairing before but we decided to try it outrdquo The chocolate became an instant hit For the G20 meeting in Udaipur at the Taj in December last year Singh went on to create another untested combinationmdash sitaphal sugar apple and chocolateEven as he was amid these experiments he came across an article in an online environmental publication that highlighted how climate change and poor demand were leading to a drop in the cultivation of indigenous fruits in the countrySingh decided to infuse new life into his brandmdashbringing indigenous fruits into the mix Saraamrsquos chocolates are unusually paired with several native fruits There are chocolates with kokum from the Konkan belt sea buckthorn and karonda from Himachal red chillies from Mathania a village in Rajasthan phalsa a summer berry from the Ganga plains in Varanasi and jamun and coconut ldquoWe are working with various dehydration companies who buy these fruits from villagers who collect these fruits from the wild vegetationrdquo says Singh ldquoSince these fruits are not cultivated in abundance or at least are not easily sourceable they sometimes end up costing thousands for a kilo in dried formrdquo His cacao beans now come from a farm based in the Idukki district of KeralaWhile they sold about 18000 chocolate bars last year Singh hopes that in the coming years not just the sales but also the conversation around indigenous fruits pick up The teenager who is currently studying philosophy at Delhi University says ldquoThere are the traditionalists who canrsquot wrap their heads around our chocolates They probably find it blasphemousrdquo he thinks ldquoBut a large group of people seem to be loving it and if our chocolates are making people curious about our native and diverse fruits we are more than happyrdquoTO BUY saraamco