How Kerala’s Jakobi Chocolatier is rethinking chocolate, one small batch at a time

At Jakobi Chocolatier’s little kiosk at Hotel International in Kochi, the shop assistant offers me a milk chocolate bonbon. The velvety chocolate marble melts in my mouth. Jacob Joy, the founder, urges me to try a dark chocolate orange peel dragee next — rich dark chocolate with a twang of citrus. “I was watching your face to see if it was conveying what the chocolate was meant to do,” he says. “Chocolate is the medium through which we express joy.”

A trained chocolatier, who is also a seasoned ultra-endurance cyclist, chocolate is pure passion for Jacob. “I just love working with chocolate. If I am under any kind of stress, I can just go back to the (chocolate) factory and sit for a while and I am okay,” he says.