Pipiltin Cocoa: Bringing Chocolate Pride Back to Indonesia

“If the other countries can go through all the hassle of getting chocolate beans from our country and turn it into an amazing product, why can’t we?”

This was one question that nagged Tissa Aunilla, then a successful corporate lawyer, when she first found the magic door to the world of chocolate, specifically Indonesian chocolate. “One of my favorite chocolate was Felchlin from Switzerland—they produce some of the most complex tasting chocolates. One day I went through their website and saw that the beans that they use came from Jember, East Java.” 

“I was very surprised. I mean, it was a very premium and one of the most expensive chocolate—yet the main ingredient came from our own backyard.”

It was one small moment that sparked something inside her. She became curious and wanted to learn more about chocolate. Through her research, she found out that Indonesia is the third largest producer of chocolate in the world, preceded by The Ivory Coast and Ghana. “The top two would change from time to time, but Indonesia was almost constantly on the third spot.”

To add in to that irony, the market for premium Indonesian chocolate was non-existent. If we talk about Indonesian chocolate brand or product, most would refer to the mass supermarket brands—you know, the chocolate bar with roasted cashews; or the one with wafer, rice crispy, caramel sauce, and a catchy repeated one syllable name. The premium chocolate bars and products were all imported, mostly from Switzerland. Tissa realized that she wanted to create a premium Indonesian chocolate brand.

That revelation, or perhaps we could call it epiphany, happened to Tissa sometime around 2009. As part of her research and learning process, she then turned her living room into a chocolate test kitchen and warehouse, where she continuously experimented with chocolate. To further sharpen her knowledge and also her palate, she flew to Switzerland, the homeland of her favorite chocolate brand, to take a Master Chocolatier certificate.

Finally, in 2013, she left her secure corporate lawyer job, took the leap and started Pipiltin Cocoa with his younger brother Irvan Helmi (co-founder of Anomali Coffee). “It was a risky move, but a calculated risk,” she said. Years of experience as a lawyer had inarguably sharpened her analytical, calculation, and decision making skills. 

“We worked directly with organic chocolate farmers from all over Indonesia, in Aceh, Bali, Flores, East Java, and recently in Papua.” Tissa and the team trained the farmers, had them taste their own products to understand it better—again, ironically, a lot of these farmers never tasted their own produce until Tissa and her team came to train and educate them.

“Nowadays they are more confident and they understand their own produce well, they even come up with suggestions or ways to improve without us having to say anything,” Tissa says. “What made us even more proud, aside from helping these farmers have a better living (from fair trading), their next generation has developed interest in studying agriculture to help their family and community further.”

Pipiltin produced artisanal single origin bean-to-bar chocolates, a food/gourmet movement that was gaining traction internationally but not really in Indonesia. “It was not easy at all. There was no market yet so we had to create the market,” Tissa added. That of course demanded education. And educating the [Indonesian] market to know, and furthermore, to appreciate their own produce, was not that simple as they tend to look down on local products.

As with all business, Tissa and Irvan came out with a business plan. “We thought that selling our products directly to the market at that time would not work as we haven’t had a strong brand name yet.” So they decided to open a dessert café specializing in chocolate. Located in Jalan Barito, Jakarta, this move harnessed a lot of media coverage and public attention. The café was a pioneer in Indonesia. It was always full booked and became the talk of the town. It was a good marketing move in terms of introducing the brand and socializing its value.

Yet they soon realized that Indonesians don’t consider dessert and chocolate as an everyday food or something that they truly need or look for, it’s more of a complimentary food. “Unlike coffee, which is considered an essential, people don’t necessarily go out to look for chocolate food or drink daily,” says Tissa. The dessert café started experiencing a dip in customers after 6 months. “I think it was because the menu was too avant-garde.” 

After 2,5 years, they decided to close the dessert café to expand their production area. They came back to the drawing board to rearrange their strategy. The focus is more on retail store rather than chocolate cafe, as the demand for the latter is still quite challenging in the market. Pipiltin then opened its first chocolate store in Grand Indonesia, Jakarta.

They also realized that they should go into the restaurants, hotels, cafes to introduce Pipiltin products to be used there, and to go into supermarkets to retail their products more widely. It was a successful move. “At first, they couldn’t believe that the products were local and not imported,” Tissa says.

Knowing that good design plays an important part in grabbing premium market’s attention, Pipiltin worked with various artists and illustrators to create the beautifully designed collectible packaging. Of course Tissa and the team also worked of researching and developing unique and modern flavors to be wrapped inside, such as potato chip chocolate bars.

Fast forward a few years later, now Pipiltin products can be found in almost all prestigious hotels, and in most gourmet restaurants and cafes in Indonesia. Pipiltin has also imported their products to Japan (where it received amazing response from the market), Russia, and Singapore. 

From chocolate bars, Pipiltin has developed and expanded their product offers to chocolate drinks, cacao nibs, and other chocolate snacks like cookie dough and brownies. Pipiltin has collaborated with artists like Issa Hening and Goodnight Electric to produce limited edition chocolate bars which highlight a more sensorial journey—combining taste with sound and visual stimulation, which surprisingly can deliver different notes and sensation from a chocolate bar.

The first and original location of the dessert café is now Pipiltin Cocoa’s office, showroom, R&D, and production facility. This is where Tissa and her team spend most of their time developing and innovating new chocolate products and experience. Before the pandemic hit, they regularly did factory tour and chocolate tasting classes inside the compound. “We still do it now but it’s by appointment only and in smaller groups. We’ve also started conducting tasting classes online via Zoom.”

And what’s the next big thing cooking up for Pipiltin? “We want to create product diversification to include functional daily consumed product,” said Tissa. With the passion and determination that Tissa and the team have poured into Pipiltin, we believe that the brand will surely rise higher and higher into the global chocolate stratosphere, landing onto our kitchen counters and dining tables!

^{Pipiltin Cocoa’s gourmet chocolate box and events will be available starting Friday, 26 March 2021 through delivery and event prepaid booking, exclusively on SELESA.}

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