Caffeine and You

Coffee, tea, chocolate, energy drinks, caffeine and people

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT THIS BLOG
    • About Kate Heyhoe
    • Archive
  • BUZZ
  • CAFFEINE BASICS
  • RECIPES
  • SHOP
  • Contact
  • March 25, 2023
You are here: Home / Buzz / Chocolate’s Next Conquest: India

Chocolate’s Next Conquest: India

June 21, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Share Button

choco-tajIn Western tradition, a dinner guest brings a bottle of wine as a host or hostess gift.

In India, Cadbury wants to make Toblerone the gift to give – it’s a strategy for growing the chocolate market in India. And it’s working. Hershey’s and other chocolate makers have also zeroed in on India, a subcontinent ready to be conquered.

TobleroneLongCadbury’s Toblerone, with its distinctive triangular box, is the leading brand in airport duty free stores around the world. It’s considered a premium brand and Cadbury India (a division of Kraft Foods) is actively promoting it and its other premium brands, including Cadbury Silk, in India.

In a nation where gifting is a solid tradition, chocolate gifting accounts for 6 percent of India’s gifting sales. The biggest brands: Hershey’s, Ferrero Rocher, Lindt, and Cadbury, which at 70 percent dominates India’s nascent chocolate market.

So how much chocolate are we talking about? Between 2005 and 2012, India’s chocolate consumption tripled – meaning it jogged from 40 grams to about 160 grams person, or less than two 3.5-ounce chocolate bars. Undeniably, this is a meager amount. But international cocoa producers are on a mission to expand their product everywhere. And wherever sales are low, there’s room to grow.

As incomes rise in India (and elsewhere), consumers tend to trade up, especially in food and grocery items. They start buying more expensive brands, and products with higher quality, better packaging, and distinctive branding.

India has long had a love affair with sweets and gift-giving, and Indian-made chocolates do exist (Amul is the largest). But international mega-brands have aggressively pitched their chocolates as status-symbol gifts during Diwali, the Indian festival of light and the most important holiday of the year. People increasingly prefer pristinely packaged chocolates over the mithrai, traditional Indian sweets sold at shops and stands. And perhaps chocolate’s caffeine and theobromine content creates a chemically induced, feel-good habit that non-chocolate mithrai can’t provide.

Chocolate Crimes and Frivolity 

Diwali chocolate-gifting is now popular enough to spawn both counterfeit chocolate sales and luxury chocolate jewelry.

Some of the Diwali woes: Fake chocolate sold under big name brands; chocolate adulterated with minerals to increase the weight and deepen color; and gravelly texture from inferior sugar. India’s newfound passion for chocolate has inspired spurious products.

Luxury products also get a boost. One designer is selling chocolate jewelry, gilded with edible gold. Gold is the ultimate Indian status symbol, and with gold prices so high, gilded chocolate seems like a novel alternative.

But whether gilded or not, chocolate is invading India, and no one seems to mind.

Filed Under: Buzz, Chocolate Tagged With: chocolate, India, trend

RECENT POSTS

The Nutella Cookbook: Steal This Book?

The Nutella Cookbook: Steal This Book?

Recipes

Would you steal Nutella? In 2013, thieves stole $21,000 worth of Nutella from a warehouse in German  [...]

Nutella and Orange Whoopie Pies

Nutella and Orange Whoopie Pies

Recipes

The combination of Nutella and orange makes eating these little cakes complete bliss… Makes 15 Wh  [...]

Nutella Truffles

Nutella Truffles

Recipes

Bite into one of these truffles and what a surprise – a caramelised hazelnut in the centre! Makes  [...]

Mini-Nutella Croissants

Mini-Nutella Croissants

Recipes

Treat yourself at breakfast or teatime with these mini-croissants made with the famous hazelnut choc  [...]

5 Ways Coffee Fights Cancer

5 Ways Coffee Fights Cancer

Buzz, Coffee, Health Effects

Will coffee help keep you cancer-free? Possibly. Coffee reduces the risk of certain cancers, acco  [...]

Sparkling Moroccan Mint Tea

Sparkling Moroccan Mint Tea

Recipes, Tea

For Sparkling Moroccan Mint Tea, just add carbonated water (see below). I've made this with green, b  [...]

5 Ways to Up Coffee's Caffeine

5 Ways to Up Coffee's Caffeine

Buzz, Coffee

Wanna Up Your Cup? Tweaking Coffee's Caffeine The amount of caffeine in your coffee depends on   [...]

Coffee + Cocoa + Chile Rub

Coffee + Cocoa + Chile Rub

Recipes

A pot of cowboy coffee and steaks on the campfire? Hmmmm.... maybe a backyard grill and icy marg  [...]

Why Bees Buzz to Caffeine

Why Bees Buzz to Caffeine

Buzz

As it turns out, bees like caffeine. Maybe that's why they buzz... Bees, as we know, are importan  [...]

No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Mini's

No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Mini's

Recipes

When it's 100 degrees outside, I head indoors to make cheesecake – miniature no-bake cheesecakes, in  [...]

Espresso-Flavored Char Shu with Java Marmalade

Espresso-Flavored Char Shu with Java Marmalade

Recipes

You know those glazed pieces of pork hanging in Chinatown restaurant windows? This is my coffee-spik  [...]

Iced Coffee Syrup, for Sparkling Coffee Spritzer

Iced Coffee Syrup, for Sparkling Coffee Spritzer

Recipes

Coffee Spritzers, here we come! Think coffee with cool, bubbly carbonation. These babies go down   [...]

10 Best Coffee Quotes From *Living* People

10 Best Coffee Quotes From *Living* People

Buzz, Fun

10 Best Coffee Quotes from Living People - Tired of quotes as stale as yesterday's coffee,   [...]

Brain Candy: Sugar May Boost Coffee's Effects

Brain Candy: Sugar May Boost Coffee's Effects

Buzz, Caffeine Effects

Sugar + caffeine = synergy? Combo boosts memory + attention, says one study.  Glucose and caffein  [...]

Hit-and-Run Driver Pleads "Starbucks Defense"

Hit-and-Run Driver Pleads

Buzz, Caffeine Effects

True story: Excessive caffeine, a mental disorder, and no sleep lead to tragic consequences... At  [...]

Cheating Death: Do Coffee Drinkers Live Longer?

Cheating Death: Do Coffee Drinkers Live Longer?

Buzz, Caffeine Effects, Coffee, Health Effects

Death is inevitable, but a major study shows... "Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death." I re  [...]

Modern Rush: Ready-to-Drink Tea

Modern Rush: Ready-to-Drink Tea

Buzz, Tea

Cold, Instant, and On-the-Go: How We Like Our Tea  More Americans go inside convenience stores   [...]

Swirled Matcha-Chocolate Brownies

Swirled Matcha-Chocolate Brownies

Recipes

An Easy Upgrade: Swirled Matcha-Chocolate Brownies By Kate Heyhoe When my chocolate Jones ne  [...]

SHOPPING


All Products

Categories

Tag Cloud

ABA addiction alcohol antioxidant appetizer beet beverage Beverage Lobby brain Brazil cacao caffeine caffeine amount caffeine effect caffeine effects cancer candy cappuccino carcinoma cassina Chapter Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 cheesecake children chile chocolate chocolate recipe Coca-Cola cocoa cocoa nib cocoa powder coffee coffee drink coffee recipe coke cola cola nut cookie dietary supplement dopamine dose energy drink energy gel energy shot FAQ FDA food food label Fun grilling guarana gum habit half-life hazelnut health health effect health effects history infographic java kids lethal dose marinade memory mental focus mental health military miniature dessert mint mood Mt. Dew neurotransmitter news Nutella orange people pork product recipe risk safety salad seasoning soda soft drink sugar tea teacup teen theanine theobromine trend withdrawal women yerba mate

CONNECT

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Follow @KateHeyhoe

 
 

© 2017, Kate Heyhoe and CaffeineAnd You.com. All Rights Reserved

Meet Kate

About Kate Heyhoe

I'm an author and journalist specializing in food and cooking. Caffeine Basics is my ninth book. I've written about the U.S. wine industry, international foods, shrinking your "cookprint," and cooking with kids. Great Bar Food at Home was a James Beard Award finalist, and Cooking Green: Reducing … More

Policies and Archives

  • Archive
  • Policies

Sites We Like

  • Coffee Krave
  • FoodWine.com
  • Sprudge
  • The Tea Stylist

Copyright © 2017 Kate Heyhoe · Log in