On World Chocolate Day, Alvinia De Souza shares her journey from restoring barren land to producing
Goa’s first single- origin bean-to-bar chocolate
RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT BUZZ
Alvinia De Souza’s interest in chocolate began during her travels abroad, where she would return home with bags full of chocolates. She says, “They weren’t meant for sharing. They were for me because I liked good-quality chocolate.
She also developed an early interest in baking, experimenting with cakes and pastries due to dissatisfaction with overly sweet buttercream cakes available at the time. “I was always trying to recreate something I had tasted while travelling or looking for healthier alternatives,” she says.
De Souza initially studied pharmaceutical chemistry, following her father’s suggestion that she could later join the family pharmacy business. “But baking was always where my heart was.”
A visit to Switzerland proved decisive when she came across a hospitality school with a professional pastry kitchen, which made her change direction. In 2013, she moved there to study chocolate and pastry arts. After training, she worked for five years in Europe as
a chocolatier.
During this period, her approach to food came from her work at a bakery in Emmental that used locally sourced ingredients and followed seasonal cycles “My employer was extremely particular about using local ingredients,” she says, citing produce sourced from nearby farmers and seasonal menus. The bakery did not use artificial flavourings, colours or synthetic essences. De Souza says, “The biggest lesson Switzerland taught me was quality over quantity.”
She later came across the bean-to-bar movement while working with couverture chocolate. Until then, her work involved finished chocolate rather than processing beans directly. “I had never worked directly with cacao beans,” she says.
Her work on bean-to-bar production took her to sourcing cacao from India. On visits to growing regions in Kerala and Goa, she observed mixed-crop systems where cacao was grown with other trees. “I thought, ‘why not grow it here?’ I wanted to create a chocolate that belonged to our region.”
In 2018, she bought agricultural land in Dodamarg due to cost constraints in Goa. The plot was barren and unsuitable for cacao without major restoration. “If I had known more about farming then, I would probably have searched harder and bought a piece of forest instead,” says De Souza, who returned in 2020 to work with cacao independently.
Although the farm, The Happy Hermit Estate, lies outside Goa, she considers it central to her plan of making Goan chocolate. “It’s only about 15 minutes across the border. The people speak Konkani, the culture feels familiar and in my heart, everything I am doing is for Goa.”
She then took up permaculture training to rebuild the site, introducing shade trees, improving soil structure and gradually planting cacao. She shares, “It was only after three or four years that my cacao saplings really started doing well.”
The farm has over 500 cacao trees. Pods are harvested twice a year. “After splitting, the beans are fermented for five to seven days in cane baskets lined with banana leaves, sun-dried, roasted in batches and ground with raw cane sugar or jaggery,” she says, adding that chocolate is then rested, tempered and moulded into bars or used in products such as pralines and hot chocolate mixes.
Through her venture DODA Atelier, Porvorim, she sells baked goods and chocolate crafted from her farm-grown cacao. The brand name DODA is derived from Dodamarg and represents her philosophy: Deep Roots (the trees), Origin (single-origin chocolate), Divine Craft (the process) and Ananda (joy).
Production is limited by farm output. The range includes chocolate bars, cacao nibs and trail mixes, with expansion dependent on future yields. “I don’t want to rush production. I want the farm to grow naturally,” she says.
One of the biggest misconceptions, she says, is that dark chocolate with a higher cacao percentage is naturally bitter. According to De Souza, bitterness is usually linked to poor-quality beans, over-roasting or heavy processing rather than cacao content. “When good-quality beans are carefully fermented and roasted according to their flavour profile, a 70 or even 80% chocolate can have fruity, nutty and earthy notes. It should be intense but not unpleasantly bitter.”
She also advises consumers to observe the colour of chocolate. Good-quality chocolate, she says, typically has a reddish-brown tone rather than an extremely dark, almost black appearance. “When chocolate becomes very dark, it can indicate heavy alkalisation and processing, which also alters its flavour,” she says, adding that it doesn’t begin in the factory but on the farm. “Soil, climate and the ecosystem all influence taste. Chocolate varies depending on where the cacao is grown,” she explains.
To build awareness, she has begun hosting farm visits where visitors can see cacao trees, witness harvesting and learn about the production process. She also plans workshops at her atelier and guided tours of her production facility once operational.
She says, “We have so many hospitality colleges in Goa. I want students to come, understand the ingredient and see the work behind good chocolate.” Looking ahead, she hopes to expand her farm to between 1,500 and 2,000 trees while encouraging more farmers to take up cacao cultivation. “If farmers want to grow cacao but don’t know what to do with the harvest, I would be happy to buy their pods. Cacao has the potential to be an additional source of income,” she says.
