30-04-2024
From Coimbatore, we went to Pollachi by taxi. We had an appointment on Tuesday with Harish owner of chocolate manufacturing company Soklet. We would be allowed to look around the plantation, and in the factory. All this had been suggested by our friend Norbert Mergen, who has been buying sustainably grown chocolate from Harish and his brother-in-law for years, through his company Clearchox. We had some time to spend at Pollachi before this meeting.
Pollachi is not really a bustling town with many tourist attractions. There are excursions to the various reserves in the wider area. You would have to book those in advance. Moreover, those usually leave from.... Coimbatore. What was left for us to do was to see the city centre on foot. But with the current temperatures, we didn't want to walk for hours at a time. So, a large part of the day we took shelter by the air-conditioning in our hotel room and continued to update this site.
What we did notice, however, both in Coimbatore and Pollachi, is that fewer people speak a little English than is the case in Kerala. Making it clear to the Rickshaw driver which hotel you want to be taken to, proves to be quite difficult. To visit the plantation, we had to arrange a taxi. To avoid confusion on the phone, we asked the front desk of our hotel, the Mandhava Inn, if they knew anyone. Not much later, our taxi had been ordered for 9am Tuesday morning.
We drove the 25 kilometres to Harish and his wife Rathi's farm through fields of coconut palms and a few small villages. We arrived there 45 minutes after leaving. The dogs started barking and soon Rathi came out. We received a friendly welcome and not much later Harish also appeared. While his wife went to work in the house, he took us on a walk across their 15 acres of land. In the shade of the coconut palms, they grow nutmeg and especially cocoa, the reason for our visit. Harish told us what we could also see with our own eyes: The plants all suffer from prolonged drought. Despite this, they can keep harvesting throughout the year.
Since they do not use pesticides, the ripe fruits of the coconut palm and cocoa are picked daily, so they won't be spoiled by vermin. The nutmeg has more of a rhythm of ripe fruits every few months, but the coconut and cocoa produce continuously. Besides cocoa fruit at different stages of maturity, new blossoms were already on several bushes.
Cocoa is not a crop widely grown in India. And with their sustainable method of cultivation, the people at Soklet are aiming more at the foreign market. Harish did not study forestry or agriculture. He learnt the ropes through observation, just doing and trying out a lot. And everything that comes off the plant also stays on the plantation (unless it is trade, of course). The leaves that fall off the bushes and palms form a thick mulch layer on the ground. The waste from the coconuts is also used as mulch. Small dams have been erected all over the plantation to hold back water during the rainy season and give it time to soak into the soil. As a result, he now has some spare groundwater, so they can still give their trees some water via the irrigation system they constructed. He tries hard to "farm" as naturally as possible with his staff, but natural phenomena like the current heat wave and lack of rain are beyond his control, much to his frustration.
So also are his neighbours. In the past, Harish has tried to convince them of a more sustainable agricultural practice. He could prove its worth, showing them he had higher yields than they did. but apparently they did not want to learn from him. What they did do, was steal part of his yields. He wanted to share, didn't he?
After the round on the plantation, we were offerde tender coconut, freshly picked and wonderfully sweet. And of course we had to try some of their chocolate. Rathi had baked the most delicious brownies, with the brownie mix you can buy on their website. And we tasted the "dark milk with coffee"(55% cocoa), "dark 70%" and "dark 80% without sugar". We talked with Harish and Rathi about their lives, their plantations, their dogs, and why we came to Southern India. We were offered a delectable lunch and then we were then taken back to Pollachi and visited one of their two chocolate factories. This is where they make chocolate from full covoa beans. While we were there, they were busy making chocolate with black garlic, an order to be shipped to our frien Norbert in the Netherlands. We had a taste, and it is really delicious!
Harish rules their three farms, his brother-in-law does the office work and looks after the trade, Rathi is in charge of making the chocolate and his sister has designed the packaging. It is a true family business, with the necessary staff. So you could say they are doing well, in more ways than one!
Chocolate made by Soklet
Today, Jaklien and I visited Harish van Soklet's Coconut and Cocoa Plantations to learn about cocoa farming and organic chocolate production. Harish and Rathi Manoj Kumae live on their cocoa plantation in Jiten Morai, near Tammampari. They live a quiet but strangely exciting life there, as their plantation lies at the foot of the Western Ghats, next to the Aliyar Reserve Forest. Since the wildlife from this protected area does sometimes make excursions, you run the risk of encountering elephants, tigers or other wild animals on their plantation. Elephants in particular can wreak quite a bit of havoc, but Harish says that is a business risk you just have to accept.
Growing cocoa
Harish runs his plantation completely organically. This means, among other things, that he does not use fertilisers and is strongly focused on improving soil quality. Cocoa bushes are shade plants and grow best under other production trees. On Soklet's plantations, these are mainly coconut palms. Apart from cocoa beans, Harish therefore produces many coconuts.
Cocoa bushes produce dozens of small flowers right on the trunk. After fertilisation, a pod is then formed containing the cocoa beans. When the pod is ripe and turns a little yellow or pink (depending on the variety), it can be picked. This can be done all year round. All plants are regularly passed for ripe pods. For this, and for harvesting the coconuts, Harish has about 30 men working for him on a daily wage basis.
Fermenting of the beans
Fermentation is crucial for the final taste of chocolate. At Soklet they handle the fermentation process themselves. This takes six to eight weeks and must take place within certain temperature limits. Therefore, the process has to be carefully monitored. We were not able to observe the fermentation process, as it took place at another location, which we did not visit. After fermentation, the beans are dried. The dried fermented cocoa beans are not palatable to eat, they are very dry and crunchy (like coffee beans), but if you chew them, the cocoa flavour already comes out.
Roasting, grinding and winnowing the fermented beans
The roasting and grinding of the fermented cocoa beans is done at the two factory sites. We visited the smallest factory. It is actually not much more than a couple of sizeable sheds behind the parental home in the middle of Pollachi. Roasting and milling is done mechanically, using machines developed specifically for Soklet.
Roasting, cracking and winnowing (skinning) the beans, yields the coarsely ground cocoa, the cocoa nibs. In many cocoa factories, the cocoa butter is extracted from the cocoa after this, but at Soklet they doe not do this. The cocoa nibs are processed directly into chocolate.
Making the chocolate
The cocoa nibs are ground into a thick paste. Then, depending on the specific recipe, the other ingredients are added. The recipe of the chocolate is kept secret, of course. It is ultimately Rathi, as the chief chocolate mistress, who decides whether the taste is good. The paste is then sometimes poured into a very thick block as an intermediate step, for conservation. If such a block of chocolate turns white, it is not because the chocolate is spoiling, but because the cocoa is separating slightly from the cocoa butter. This is corrected in the final stage by rolling, heating and whisking the chocolate to get a smooth homogeneous texture. The hot chocolate is then poured into the desired mould. These can be moulds of bars, but also moulds for one-kilo blocks, which are sold to hotels and restaurants.
Packageing, marketing and export
After the chocolate slices have hardened, they are packaged, first in a layer of foil and then in consumer paper packaging. For sales directly to consumers, Soklet has its own webshop. Soklet exports a lot of chocolate, to the US, but also to the Netherlands. Every year, Soklet is present at the chocolate fair Chocoa in Amsterdam, held in February. Those wanting to try Soklet's chocolate for themselves can visit their website (they also ship abroad) www.soklet.in . When we visited, they were just producing a batch of chocolate bars with black garlic for Dutch wholesaler ClearChox. We sampled several flavours of Soklet and can heartily recommend the products: chocolate in a number of delectable flavours from a sustainable, organic family-run company from India.
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