As the bean to bar movement gains traction in India, it’s imperative to know what exactly is the difference between Chocolate Maker and Chocolatier. To be honest, when we first started out in 2014 we had branded ourselves as Binge, artisan chocolatier; which was corrected quickly and changed to Binge, artisan chocolate.

In a nutshell, a chocolatier will melt/temper chocolate, add nuts/spices & flavouring, mold it, pack it & sell it. They go from semi-finished chocolate to finished chocolate confection.

On the other hand, a chocolate maker will work closely with cacao farmers to focus quality ferment and drying times to fine tune the parameters. The chocolate makers will then procure the beans and process them into a finished chocolate bar. The process involves, roasting, cracking, winnowing, refining, coching, tempering, adding nuts/spices/flavouring and molding, packing & selling. It means they go from a raw cacao bean to a finished packaged product under one roof.

Chocolate makers take a lot of time & put in the effort to make a bean to bar chocolate (finished product.)

Chocolatiers too put in time & effort and we give credit where credits due. However, there are plenty of chocolatiers in India that are pretentious on social media and their pr activities. They will talk about how their cacao is sourced Ghana, Vietnam, Peru & Ecuador and that the beans have gone under the strict ferment & drying quality parameter checks, when in reality they have sourced this chocolate (semi-finished chocolate) from Callebaut or Valrhona. This fact is conveniently not highlighted.

Yes, you may say we are calling them out… But chocolate makers in India deserve their credit as well. If some chocolatier/s want to pass off/be seen as a chocolate maker without putting in the same effort a chocolate maker does, they have be called out.