The home of Indian Origin Bean-to-Bar Chocolate
OUR STORY | The making of the world's first Indian origin bean-to-bar chocolate
2011 | ANOTHER HOME KITCHEN STORY | It's in many ways a tired trope, a well loved brand emerging from humble beginnings in a small garage or kitchen in the founder's home. Our story at Naviluna, unfortunately, is no different. In 2011 our founder David Belo was on a sabbatical, having taken a break from running a sourdough bakery in London whilst simultaneously managing and mixing drinks in some of London's most prestigious cocktail bars and restaurants for almost a decade.
In search of a return to "sunshine, tea and cricket," the South African felt that Mysore was an ideal city from which to reset and incubate ideas. A chance meeting with a friend visiting from Gokarna (on Karnataka's west coast) produced cacao beans sourced from the area. A revelation at the time, since most people, even within India, were not aware that the Deccan was a cacao producing region.
Following on from initiatives by John Nancy aka the Chocolate Alchemist, early developments by the Mast Brothers, Cacao Prieto and Marou as well as a host of craft chocolate enthusiasts engaging online in forums, who would later go on to establish companies such as Raaka, Manoa, Ritual, Pump Street, Dandelion and Dick Taylor, 2011 and 2012 was an exciting time of incubation for the second wave of bean-to-bar chocolate worldwide, building on the foundation set by early pioneers like Mott Green of the Grenada Chocolate Co and John Sharffen Berger. Naviluna Mysore was a child of this era.
2012 | FROM ACORNS TALL OAKS GROW | Starting with Rs.18,000 ($200 at the time), a restored antique iron millet grinder found on Ashoka Road, a prestige tilting wet grinder and multiple iterations of homemade winnowing machines (which would be followed by many more cobbled pieces of equipment in the future, including one episode feauturing an exercise bike found on the side of the road who's fate ended welded to a mosambi juicer and a pulley system for cracking cacao beans), David started a two year phase of R&D from the kitchen of his apartment in the northern suburb of Gokulam in Mysore. Initially working with cacao sourced from Varanashi organic farms in Puttur, Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, a farm with a long history with cacao cultivation and commitment to organic farming practices.
The first two years saw persistent and obsessive trialling, producing three kilogram batches weekly, often selling out among the international yoga community in Mysore.
2013 | OUT OF THE KITCHEN | After a successful Kickstarter campaign raised £3,000 to fund the step from home-based obsession to viable micro enterprise, production was expanded into a small six hundred square foot industrial work-shed on the edge of the Hebbal Industrial area, near the JK Tyres Vikrant plant, backed by a large coconut grove, micro industrial units and many uninvited snakes. Housing production, administration and marketing, the company operated out of this location from 2013 - 2021.
2014 | DESTINATION BANGALORE | The brand finally launched in Bangalore under the label Earth Loaf, a name borrowed from the sourdough bakery started by David Belo in London in 2010, with an inaugural tasting session at our first retail outlet, the Ants in Indiranagar's HAL 2nd stage, near the New Horizon School, on a warm March evening in 2014. Approximately twenty curious gastronomes, chocolatiers and food enthusiasts were in attendance and so began our push towards establishing bean-to-bar chocolate in India, and a long journey to showcase the provenance of the subcontinent's cacao, rivalling our international counterparts - a goal which would take another seven years to achieve and perfect.
Word spread quickly and within three months the brand had received coverage from BBC Good Food Magazine, Indulge (New Indian Express) and financial publication, Mint.
2015 | GRASS ROOTS | The next four years saw consistent expansion with the opening of our e-commerce platform and the team travelling to different cities, meeting customers, talking about the nuances of bean-to-bar craft chocolate almost every weekend for four years. Travelling by train, bus and air attending farmers markets, design fairs, gourmet food expos and wine & spirits events. Meeting customers face to face was an essential means through which we were able to share our passion for craft chocolate, usually with our chefs themselves engaging the public in person.
2017 | A SETBACK IS A SETUP FOR A COMEBACK | Tragedy struck when an electrical short-circuit lead to our Hebbal premises going up in flames, causing damage to stocks and equipment. With the help and support of our on-trade customers, we were able to slowly and methodically rebuild and regain our momentum
2019 | ALL IN A NAME | With several challenges behind us, a persistent thought kept nagging at our founder, our name. Having long departed from our sourdough bread origins, he felt that it failed to carry the intention of a craft chocolate maker, our emphasis on Indian origin cacao and our roots as a brand inspired and incubated in Mysore. Since our focus has always been to celebrate the natural wealth of the Indian sub-continent, the national bird of India being the peacock, which translated into Kannada (the state language of Karnataka and Mysore) is "navilu," with "na" being a shortening of "inda" or "of" in Kannada. After much reflection, a single word and a new name emerged. On the 18th of Jan, 2019, despite much advice to the contrary, the Company officially changed its name to Naviluna, thus “of the peacock” a metaphor for “of India” or simply “Indian in origin.”
2020 | RAMAVILAS ROAD | Raghava Sadhana, a charming grand bungalow dating back to at least 1872, stood empty of Ramavilas Road, just minutes walk from the world famous Ambavilas Palace in central Mysore for the best part of eighteen years...