Bang for your Buck!
Once you have known how "belgian" chocolate is different from "craft" chocolate.. how do you decide which one to opt for? Unique inclusions?..Origin of cacao?...Texture?.. Price?
We have positioned Pascati as premium bean to bar chocolate maker. As the retail shelf becomes more crowded, it's becoming more tough to grab the attention of our (limited, yet growing) consumer market.
In India, most bean to bar chocolate makers will have a similar setup with similar machines to process cacao into chocolate. Source of cacao too is from similar regions. So if the supply chain is in place and the processes are similar, will the chocolate taste the same. The answer is Yes & No. No, its will taste fruity, nutty, earthy, floral etc.. but Yes, from a layman's perspective, it would pretty much be the same.
This brings us to the question, who is giving the consumer the most "bang for the buck?" If one refers closely to the start of the bean to bar movement in India in 2014/2015, you will notice a few things.
2014
- Craft Chocolate was price at Rs. 315 for 75g (Rs. 4200/kg). Pascati was priced at 270 for 75g (Rs. 3600 per kg)
- Chocolate was made with 2 ingredients (cocoa beans & sugar/alternate sugar). Some makers earlier looked down at using sugar and instead used coconut or palm sugar. We always felt that coconut/palm sugar influenced the flavour profile of the cacao and opted for a neutral sugar to highlight the cacao. These same chocolate makers are now adding cane sugar ;)
- Chocolate made without cocoa butter. Again, the chocolate makers didn't use cocoa butter because they wanted to add a "je ne sais quois" factor to their chocolate..stating that cocoa butter is used to mask the off flavours of cacao.. In reality, adding cocoa butter will elevate the mouthfeel of any chocolate. These same makers are now adding cocoa butter ;)
- Only 3 brands on the gourmet retail shelf
2021
- Craft Chocolate is price at Rs. 295 for 65g (Rs. 4540/kg). Very quietly, the weight of chocolate was drastically reduced & MRP was marginally reduced.
Some other makers priced their chocolate at Rs. 390 for 60g (Rs. 6500/kg)!
Pascati is priced at 280 for 75g (Rs. 3740 per kg).
- There are over 12 brands that provide quality bean to bar chocolate on the Indian retail shelf.
It's our moral obligation, as a brand, to inform the consumer the value we bring when they decide to purchase craft chocolate. At Pascati, we have grown organically (& as the economies of scale start to take shape) we have shared a fair portion of it with our supply chain partners.
So be informed and compare value (MRP/Weight) when you spend your hard earned money on craft chocolate.