How The Cocoa Project is changing the narrative of chocolate in Vietnam

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Mar 19

“We’re on a mission to create a chocolate culture in Vietnam and this is what I believe makes us unique,” says Khanh-Linh, ex-consultant turned chocolate entrepreneur and founder of The Cocoa Project. Instead of championing Vietnamese chocolate around the world, The Cocoa Project is focused on creating chocolate products, flavours and tastes that Vietnamese locals will love. The goal is to catalyse a culture of chocolate appreciation in Vietnam.

From consultant to chocolate entrepreneur and a move from West to East

Simple, understated yet elegant. It’s not difficult to see where The Cocoa Project gets its good looks from. Founder Khanh-Linh is a quintessential 30-something French-Vietnamese, whom like many of Vietnam’s young, thriving and successful diaspora found herself on a one-way flight to Vietnam. During her time working as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Paris, she had the opportunity to work with a leading chocolate company and got her first taste of the industry. Needless to say, she was addicted from then on. “I was moved by the passion of the people working in the field and the connection between everyone during chocolate tastings. Plus, it’s great to be in a workplace that constantly smells like chocolate,” laughs Khanh-Linh.

This led her to move to Vietnam shortly after in pursuit of a career in chocolate. As fate has it, Khanh-Linh found it in a bus on the way to Da Lat at 4 am where she met Gricha, a longtime Vietnam expatriate, serial chocolate entrepreneur from Belgium (30 years of experience) and founder of Cacao Trace program, a global sustainable cacao sourcing program. After exchanging ideas and conversation, the two bonded over their mutual interests in chocolate and passion to champion a new wave of chocolate products tailored for the Vietnamese market.

*Founders of The Cocoa Project, Khanh-Linh and Gricha, at the opening ceremony (Source: The Cocoa Project)*

Initially, the duo wanted to open a chocolate museum to pay tribute to Vietnamese farmers as well as the varied terroir-driven cocoa beans of Vietnam in an effort to cast a spotlight on sustainable cocoa practices and evoke a sense of appreciation (and pride!). Though the original idea has evolved, the core mission remains and that is to create a culture of chocolate appreciation in Vietnam. Since products are largely meant for local consumption, Khanh-Linh’s approach is to weave her chocolates into day-to-day habits and moments in an effort to integrate chocolate into a local Vietnamese person’s lifestyle. This is evident in The Cocoa Project’s tagline - Sô-cô-la cho mọi người.

Vietnamese chocolate: A quintessentially local product

To Khanh-Linh, Vietnamese chocolate is very unique as it’s not only made from Vietnamese cocoa beans but also crafted, moulded and developed in Vietnam. It’s a quintessentially local product where the entire supply chain to sales process is based in Vietnam. This is a rare feat in the chocolate industry since most chocolate is made from West African beans and manufactured in factories in the West (Europe and Americas).

Vietnamese beans also carry a distinctive, fruity flavor stemming from Vietnam’s unique terroir, cacao species (Trinitario), fermentation process and roasting process amongst a myriad of other factors. Due to this distinctive combination, Vietnamese chocolate is not only unique from the rest of the world but also from each other depending on what region they’re from. Just like wine, terroir will affect the flavour of chocolate.

Crafting a new narrative for Vietnamese chocolate in Vietnam

While the popularity of Vietnamese chocolate and cocoa beans have boomed in the past decade around the world (largely owing to industry trailblazer Marou Chocolate), their popularity and consumption in Vietnam is another story. Like many commodities in Vietnam, Vietnamese chocolate is still made primarily for export outside of the country.

Thus, to Khanh-Linh, Vietnamese chocolate culture is new and unexplored territory and in her words “the perfect time to build up”. For many Vietnamese people, the word ‘chocolate’ brings to mind nostalgic childhood treats such as choco-pie, chocolate coins and chocolate malt drinks such as Milo. Foreign chocolate brands often feel unfamiliar and unaffordable. A stark contrast to the West where chocolate is typically consumed as tablettes, (hot chocolate) and evokes a strong sense of comfort, especially during the winter.

The misconception here that Khanh-Linh believes is that Vietnamese people don’t like chocolate. In fact, they do having grown up with it. However, chocolate tastes different here than in the West and it just needs to be tailored and more importantly, appropriate for consumption in tropical weather. This also means that conventional ‘chocolate moments’ such as cosying up to a cup of hot chocolate and a book, need to be redefined for the Vietnamese market. Simply adopting Western products and infusing them with local flavours and ingredients won’t cut it.

“Creating a chocolate culture in Vietnam means redefining conventional ‘chocolate moments’ for the Vietnamese market. Simply adopting Western chocolate products and infusing them with local flavours and ingredients won’t cut it"

There are many pre-existing myths and misconceptions about chocolate that Khanh-Linh aspires to debunk through The Cocoa Project. At the top of her list is that chocolate is a luxury item only for the sophisticated. At The Cocoa Project, chocolate products are simple and ‘friendly’ and take the form of cookies, cake, brownies you guessed it, decadent rich hot chocolate. For chocolate aficionados, options are aplenty with playful options such as turmeric orange ginger mendiants (bite-sized wonders of melted chocolate with dried fruit).

Nothing is too intimidating or unaffordable and everything features quality local herbs, spices and fruits (turmeric, basil, mango, banana, passion fruit) that contribute to more sustainable cocoa practices and a lower carbon footprint. “A simple and friendly chocolate experience” as Khanh-Linh puts it and evident in The Cocoa Project’s airy, open and inviting two-story flagship store conveniently located in District 3.

And if the space, smell and assortment of colourful locally-inspired Vietnamese chocolate aren’t enough to entice you to visit, perhaps its production line where you can witness The Cocoa Project’s chocolate-making process will.

Address: 143 Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Phường Võ Thị Sáu, Quận 3, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Opening Hours: Daily, 9 am to 6 pm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecocoaproject.saigon/

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Hi, I’m Jovel Chan, a Singaporean food and drink blogger and F&B consultant📍Ho Chi Minh City.

Over the past two years, I’ve had the pleasure of dining in more than 150+ restaurants across Vietnam and judging multiple competitions. Here, I share the industry through my eyes and I hope it inspires you to discover, learn and explore Vietnam’s exciting food and drink scene.