chocolates & corporates

Why would an article on chocolates sound interesting to anyone reading the magazine, given that audience here is predominantly Corporates. Possibly, due to the festive season, a time for Corporates to unwind a bit and celebrate Christmas and New Year feasts. Also, traditionally, many Corporates have used this time to hand out mementos and gifts to Customers, Business associates, Employees and friends as a mark of appreciation and continued support to their business. Gourmet chocolate, as gifts, is definitely one option.

While the western world, both in corporate and social life, gift gourmet or exquisite chocolates on every possible occasion and event. Indian market is just getting exposed to these international quality chocolates and are getting to see qualitative and packaging difference in comparison with the currently available mass retailed chocolates. Chocolates are now becoming suitable replacements for traditional sweets, dry fruits and other kinds of gift items.

Interestingly, in the current market context, where budgets are tighter for employee entertainment and corporate gifting expenses, Chocolates offer a viable and attractive alternative to Corporates. Keeping the morale of an employee high during these times is of high consequence. Gifting a box of chocolate as employee performance awards or a team meeting/event takeaway would actually provide wonderful savings opportunity to the company .At the same time, it establishes or retains personalized interactions with an employee.

When it comes to corporate gifting segment, chocolates may be irresistible to be placed as tabletops through the year like other mementos (though the shelf life would permit it :). However, it can be certainly be a gastronomic experience, which can be shared with family members or colleagues. To that extent it is definitely a pleasant gesture and be rest assured that customers will be delighted.

The subtleties that make a Gourmet chocolate

So what stops someone from gifting a box of chocolates that are currently available through mass distribution or what I would like to term as "vanilla chocolates" .Apart from the reasons that it is publicly available, packaged for mass distribution and consumption, and does not have a premium brand identification, there is a fundamental inherent difference in the constitution or the ingredients of these chocolates.

Gourmet chocolates have popularly come to be known as Swiss chocolates, mostly to imply that the quality is perhaps as good as the one's prepared by the European masters of chocolate. In most cases these gourmet chocolates are made out of pure chocolates which essentially consist of a very high constitution of natural cocoa butter. It uses cocoa in its purest form and without preservatives and other fats. This purity provides a smooth and a distinct taste. Variation in cocoa content and other main ingredients is used to create different kinds of chocolates which have specific properties like texture, color, shine and flavor. For instance, Dark Chocolates has a very high cocoa content where the taste is balanced between slightly bitter and sweet. Whereas, White and Milk chocolates use cocoa butter and premium milk in varying degrees to present a more velvety texture and a sweeter flavor

Creative makeovers on the chocolate base is what makes the Gourmet chocolates most delightful. Manufacturers use different means like enrobing and rolling. Furthermore, a manufacturer adds soft centered fillings with a creative mix of additives like Orange, Strawberry, hazelnuts, coffee and a lot more ingredients which offer variety and a greater tang to any chocolate connoisseur.

Prathibha Hegde manages Indulge Chocolatier, a firm which is into distribution and value added reselling of Swiss chocolates. She is reachable at E-mail: prathibha@indulj.com   www.indulj.com

Issue BG93 Dec08