Few people know that India grows cacao, yet since the 1960s, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh have been producing quality beans, often intercropped in the shade of coconut palms and rubber trees. Our pure cocoa powder is obtained by pressing and grinding these Indian beans, with no added sugar or additives whatsoever. At Table Indienne, we wanted to introduce you to this overlooked cacao, far removed from sweetened commercial chocolate powders.
A cacao grown in the shade of coconut palms
The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) arrived in India well after the country's classic spices, introduced in the south as a supplementary crop under the canopy of already-established trees: coconut palms, rubber trees, sometimes areca palms. This intercropping model, very similar to the one used for vanilla or pepper, lets smallholder farms diversify their income without planting dedicated orchards. Indian cacao remains a modest production compared to the West African or South American giants, but it's steadily gaining ground in the country's modern cooking.
Pure cocoa vs. chocolate powder: the key difference
A classic chocolate powder, the kind found in breakfast tins, already contains sugar, often milk powder, and added flavouring. Pure cocoa powder, on the other hand, is 100% cacao: pressed and ground with no additives, it leaves whoever is cooking in full control of the sugar and other ingredients. Its taste is more intense, more bitter, closer to the raw bean: an ingredient to be measured out, not a product to consume as is.
Pure cocoa powder and sweetened chocolate powder share nothing but their colour: one is a raw ingredient, the other an already-processed product.
Powder or nibs: which one to choose?
Cocoa powder is obtained by pressing and finely grinding roasted beans; our roasted cacao nibs, on the other hand, are simply pieces of roasted, crushed beans, with no further processing. Powder brings a diffuse aroma throughout a preparation; nibs bring crunch and a frank bitterness, as a topping or mixed into a batter rather than dissolved in it. The two complement each other more than they replace one another.
- Baking: cakes, brownies, and cookies with intense cacao flavour, powder in the batter and nibs as a crunchy topping.
- Hot drinks: homemade hot chocolate or cacao-spiced chai, where pure powder can be dosed to taste.
- Modern Indian cooking: spiced mole-style sauces or marinades for grilled meats, a still-recent use in India.
- Smoothies and bowls: a touch of pure powder, or a few crushed nibs for texture.
- Homemade spread: cocoa powder mixed with ghee and honey, with no industrial sugar added.
The word "cacao" comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and the crop travelled from Mexico all the way to southern India by way of West Africa, where Europeans first planted it at scale. India remains a very small player on the global cacao stage today, but one that grows its beans exactly the way it grows its spices, in the shade and on small plots.
A word from Table Indienne
Offering pure cocoa powder and cacao nibs from our shop in Wittisheim lets you discover an unexpected side of southern India. We work with growers who cultivate their beans the traditional way, on small farms across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. Like our Kerala vanilla, this cacao grows in the shade of the very same coconut groves: the two pair wonderfully together in a homemade hot chocolate.