Chocolate melts at approximately 34–35°C.
In Tamil Nadu in May, the temperature regularly exceeds 40°C. In Delhi, it can touch 45°C. In Mumbai, the humidity arrives before the heat and makes everything worse.
This is the fundamental problem of selling handmade chocolate in India during summer. It is not a small problem. It is the kind of problem that, if you think about it too carefully before you start, might convince you not to start at all.
We think about it carefully. We started anyway. Here is what it actually looks like.
The Kitchen
Our kitchen in Ambur runs on air conditioning that we cannot afford to let fail. The temperature inside is maintained at a level that would be considered aggressive in most offices — cool enough for chocolate to temper correctly, cool enough for ganache to set at the right rate, cool enough for the finished products to hold their shape while they're being packed.
The moment you open the door to the outside, you feel the difference immediately. The air hits you like something physical. And then you go back inside and keep working.
Tempering chocolate in summer requires more precision than tempering in cooler months. The margin for error is smaller. The chocolate moves through its temperature ranges faster. A batch that would take twenty minutes to temper in December might need constant attention in May. We have learned to read the chocolate — its gloss, its viscosity, the way it moves in the bowl — in a way that compensates for what the thermometer alone can't tell us.
The Cold Chain
Getting chocolate from our kitchen in Ambur to a customer in Bangalore, Mumbai, or Delhi without it melting is a logistics problem that we solve differently in summer than in the rest of the year.
Every order that leaves our kitchen in summer goes out with insulated packaging — boxes designed to maintain a lower internal temperature for long enough to survive the journey. We use gel packs rather than dry ice for most shipments, because dry ice can cause bloom on chocolate surfaces if it gets too cold. The packaging is tested, not assumed.
We also think carefully about dispatch timing. An order dispatched on a Friday afternoon in May might sit in a courier facility over the weekend in temperatures that no amount of insulation can fully compensate for. We adjust our dispatch schedule accordingly — prioritising early-week dispatch, avoiding long weekends, communicating clearly with customers about expected delivery windows.
None of this is foolproof. Occasionally, despite everything, a shipment arrives in less than perfect condition. When it does, we make it right. But the goal is to make it right before it leaves, not after it arrives.
What We Make (and Don't Make) in Summer
Summer changes our range in ways that are not always visible to customers but are very visible to us.
Fresh cream ganache — the filling in our Ganache de Luxe and our truffle range — is the most temperature-sensitive thing we make. It requires careful handling at every stage: the ganache must be made, set, and packed in controlled conditions, and it must reach the customer quickly. In summer, we are more conservative about how far we ship fresh ganache products and more careful about the windows in which we dispatch them.
Our bar range — the Masala Chai Dark Chocolate, the Roasted Almond Dark Chocolate, the Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate and others — is more robust. A properly tempered bar in good packaging can survive a well-managed journey even in summer. These are the products we lean on more heavily during the hottest months.
Our Sugar-Free range and our dragées also travel well — the dragée shell provides an additional layer of protection for the chocolate inside. In summer, these are among our most reliably shippable products.
The Customer Side
Customers who order chocolate in summer are, in our experience, either very trusting or very informed. The trusting ones order and hope for the best. The informed ones ask questions: How is it packaged? When will it be dispatched? What should they do when it arrives?
We prefer the informed ones, because the conversation is more useful. And we try to make more customers informed by being transparent about what summer shipping involves — what we do to protect the chocolate, what the customer can do when it arrives (refrigerate briefly if needed, let it come to room temperature before eating), and what to do if something goes wrong.
The most common summer complaint is not melting — it is bloom. Chocolate that has been through temperature fluctuation during transit can develop the white or grey streaks that indicate fat bloom. It is safe to eat and the flavour is largely unaffected, but it looks wrong, and customers notice. We take bloom seriously as a quality signal and work to prevent it through packaging and timing rather than explaining it away after the fact.
Why We Do It
The honest answer is that we do it because stopping is not really an option.
Summer in India is four to five months long, depending on where you are. A chocolate business that paused for summer would pause for nearly half the year. That is not a business — it is a seasonal hobby.
So we adapt. We invest in packaging. We adjust our dispatch schedule. We are more conservative about what we ship and where. We communicate more carefully with customers. We accept that summer will be harder than the rest of the year and plan accordingly.
And we keep making chocolate, in a kitchen in Ambur that is cooler than the street outside, because the alternative — not making it — is worse than the problem.
A Note for Summer Customers
If you're ordering Cavasa chocolate in summer, here is what we'd ask:
- Order early in the week so your package doesn't sit in transit over a weekend.
- Make sure someone will be available to receive it — a package left on a doorstep in the afternoon sun is a package at risk.
- If the chocolate arrives with slight bloom, don't worry. Let it come to room temperature, taste it, and judge it on flavour rather than appearance.
- If something is genuinely wrong, tell us. We will make it right.
We appreciate your patience with the season. We think the chocolate is worth it. We hope you do too.
Browse our Cavasa Chocolates collection — made in Ambur, Tamil Nadu, in a kitchen that takes the heat seriously. 🍫
