Nepali handmade chocolates are slowly making its presence felt in the domestic market, which is currently flooded with imported chocolate. Customers are clamouring to get a bite as Nepali chocolate can be customised to one’s liking from the packaging, quality to freshness. Another reason for the rise in popularity is that the chocolate is produced domestically.

According to chocolate entrepreneurs, there are over 10 handmade chocolate manufacturers in the Valley.

Smita Jhunjhunwala Goyal, CEO at The Chocolate Garden is one of those manufacturers. She said that the market for handmade chocolate has changed compared to what it was five years ago. “Even tourists are starting to take chocolates as gifts for their relatives and friends,” said Goyal. 

Handmade chocolate have become the ideal gift choice for people. The demand for handmade chocolate spikes during festival season such as Dashain, Tihar, Mother’s Day, New Year, Valentine’s Day and other significant days like anniversaries, birthdays and farewell parties, said entrepreneurs.

These handmade chocolate companies make their treats on an order basis, with customers ordering through the firm’s website or social media page.

Ishan Pandey, founder of Swiffles said, “Nepali handmade chocolate have huge potential in both the domestic and global markets.” According to Pandey, corporate houses are surprisingly the ones that fuel the demand for such products.

Opened three years ago, Swiffles is mainly focused on taking corporate orders, said Pandey. He set up the business after his business idea got selected by Idea Studio. He said that the demand for dark chocolate is high compared to milk and white chocolate. Prices for handmade chocolate from Swiffles start from Rs350. Pandey plans to make automatic packaging for his product soon in the future. 

And for two sisters, Urusha and Arunima Shrestha, their childhood dream of setting a chocolate factory led them to open Tittofritto. “We used to love chocolate when we were kids and used to make different varieties by melting them,” said Urusha Shrestha. 

The Shrestha sisters left their jobs and decided to enter the handmade chocolate business in 2017. Shrestha said that they decided to start the business after receiving positive responses 

from relatives and friends when they tasted the chocolate made by the sisters.

Tittofritto makes alcoholic and non-alcoholic chocolate with prices starting from Rs200 per bar and Rs400 per box for non-alcoholic chocolate. It costs Rs1,200 for 12 pieces of alcoholic chocolate. 

They have even hired a worker to produce chocolate in a dedicated kitchen at their home. According to Shrestha, Tittofritto has been using available local products and importing raw materials from India to prepare the chocolate. The sisters’ chocolates are making a name for themselves with customers outside of Nepal asking to buy their products.