Singles Only, Please!

The caviar of chocolates is the single-origin variety. And it8217;s here

MOVIEDOM8217;S MOST philo-sophical mum once said: 8220;Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you8217;re going to get.8221; With due respect to Mrs Gump, we have to clarify: We do know. And it8217;s 70 per cent Sao Thome, if you8217;re biting into the wafer-thin three-inch square of dark chocolate off the counter at Choko La, the South Delhi chocolate boutique.

But no, we go too fast. 8220;Break off a bit, listen for the snap,8221; advises Vasudha Munjal, 25, who set up the boutique8212; the first of its kind in Delhi8212;late last year. 8220;Then see if your fingers get a bit gooey. Now place it on your tongue and let it sit there for a while. That8217;s the ultimate chocolate experience8212;when you just savour it on the tongue.8221;

As every chocolatier worth his couverture will tell you, single-ori-gin chocolate8212;such as the Sao Thome bar8212;is Very Serious Chocolate. 8220;Cocoa beans have a major element of terroir,8221; agree food consultants Sonia and Manu Mohindra, using the French term denoting the contribution of their particular soil-weather- fruit combination to their wines and champagnes. 8220;For instance, if there are mango orchards near the cocoa plantation, there will be a faint aftertaste of the fruit in the chocolate. It contributes to its signature taste.8221;

In the world of cocoa beans, that8217;s an important distinction. Though 8216;single- origin8217; means different things to differ-ent chocolatiers8212;single estate or single bean or single country8212;they all come under the 8216;fine8217; or 8216;flavour8217; category of beans, which account for less than 5 per cent of the world8217;s annual production.

8220;Single-origin chocolates are real chocolate,8221; says the Oberoi Delhi8217;s pas-try chef Avijit Ghosh, one of the few in the city working with the speciality prod-uct for his desserts and moulded choco-lates. The bulk of it comes to Delhi from Belgian behemoth Barry Callebaut. Come Easter, and the MBD Radisson8217;s Chocolate Box, too, will be venturing into single-origin. Says its chef Amit Ku-mar, showing off a generously sized trial bar: 8220;Though we focus on stu-dio confectionery, we will be stocking a choice of single-ori-gin bars soon.8221;

Perhaps most excitingly, single-origins from Lindt will soon hit the general market. 8220;We8217;re looking at introducing single-origin chocolates from Cuba, Madagascar and Ecuador,8221; says Zeba Mitha Kohli, who imports the Swiss ma-jor into India.

Interestingly, Kohli, an established chocolatier herself, won8217;t dabble in sin-gle- origin. 8220;I blend, blend, blend be-cause of my knowledge of what kind of couverture works best where,8221; she as-serts. 8220;It8217;s all about personal choices.8221; We couldn8217;t have said it better. Only, the choices just expanded and for a choco-fiend, the decision8217;s just got that much harder.