It wouldn’t be a proper Valentine’s Day withoutchocolate, as chocolatiers all over the world know. In Bandung, two cacaocrafters have been hard at work to create the sweetest, most creative offeringsfor lovers in search of the perfect treat this holiday.
Chocolatier Kiki Gumelar, who sells his Chocodot brand of sweets, came up witha package called TekananBatin Cinta (Love Under Mental Pressure), or TBC, for Valentine’sDay this year. The package includes five fun varieties: coklat gawat darurat (emergencychocolate), coklatanti galau (anti-mellow chocolate), coklat tolak miskin (poor-repellent chocolate), coklat badai tsunami (tsunami wavechocolate) and coklatsesuwatu banged (chocolate for something meaningful).
“Our flavors represent the feelings that people experience when they’re inlove,” Kiki said.
Each chocolate bar also contains a message. Loosely translated from Indonesian,the anti-mellow chocolate, for example, says it “comes in handy forhopelessness, exam failures, unrequited love, nightmares, hesitation,nervousness and doubt.”
And the humor doesn’t end there. The message goes on to read, “100 percentstylish, 100 percent confident, 100 percent presence, 100 percent narcissistic,and bye bye to calories.”
“I want to make people smile,” Kiki said. “And people can then give somethingfunny or unique to their loved ones.”
Although Kiki has achieved a light, casual feel with his products, he isserious when it comes to actually making them, experimenting with differentflavors and choosing only top quality chocolate for his Valentine’s Dayselections.
He uses a mix of dark, white and milk chocolate for his products, combiningthem with unusual flavors such as chili. For example, the tsunami flavorincludes extra spice to give tasters a surprise upon the first bite.
In addition to his TBC offerings, Kiki has two other special editions that comewith equally creative names: coklatcegah alay (cheesiness preventive chocolate) and coklat enteng jodoh(easy-to-get-a-soulmate chocolate), which have bittersweet and sweet flavors,respectively.
When it comes to naming the flavors, he considers lingo from social media.
“I’m mostly inspired by daily conversations with my friends, primarily throughthe microblogging Web site Twitter,” he said. “People use different kinds oflanguage when they communicate or post their status updates on Twitter. I wantmy chocolate to be updated and relevant for those who are accustomed to theInternet and social media.”
Kiki says his products became best-sellers last year, and this year he isconfident he can repeat that success.
“For the TBC packages, we sold 1,000 chocolate bars in just the first hourduring the launch earlier this month,” he said.
Valentine’s Day is also a special occasion for chocolatier Adisty Halim, 25,the owner of Dhestchza chocolate products.
Adisty started her chocolate business in Bandung after graduating from highschool, and today she specializes in unique, artistic chocolates. She sellseverything from chocolate bars to 3D creations, and she invites people to placecustom orders on Valentine’s Day with no additional charge.
“Customers can request special designs and even flavors for Valentine’s Daygifts,” she said, adding that the most difficult orders last year were for a 3Dchocolate violin and piano.
“Since we didn’t have the molds, we had to make them [the molds] first,” shesaid. “But we didn’t charge the customers for the extra work and cost. We onlycharged them for the amount of chocolate used for the designs.”
This year, Adisty is offering several designs, including chocolate shaped likea heart puzzle and another like a 3D heart and rose.
“For flavors, we try to follow the trends as well as customers’ wishes,” shesaid. “We want our customers to be able to keep their gifts longer, so we makeproducts that don’t have to be stored in the fridge. People can just store themat room temperature without worrying that they’ll melt.”
Her shop on Jalan Kebon Bibit Tenga has already seen a spike in orders, sellingmore than 100 kilograms of chocolate this week. Her products cost about Rp50,000 to Rp 365,000 ($5 to $40).
With so many fun offerings, nutritionist Nur Fatimah has some good news: Inmoderation, chocolate can actually be healthful because it containsantioxidants that help protect cells against the effects of free radicals,which are responsible for aging and tissue damage.
But too much chocolate, she says, may lead to various health problems,including obesity and diabetes. Many chocolate producers use excessive amountsof sugar, she said, and advised people to instead opt for chocolate with moremilk than sugar.
“But best and healthiest of all is dark chocolate, so make sure you give someof it to your loved ones,” she said.
