When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Digvijay Singh found himself with extra free time due to online schooling.

The then 16-year-old decided to channel his energy into a fun and interesting activity, eventually discovering a passion for making chocolates at home.

Back then, this young chocolatier had no idea that this hobby would eventually turn into a successful business, selling over two tonnes of chocolate and generating Rs 1 crore in revenue.

Born and raised in Udaipur in a middle-class family, Digvijay (19) grew up looking beyond books and lectures. “I would always be looking for innovative ideas and things to do that were ‘out of the box’,” he says.

While looking for ideas to do something in his free time during the pandemic-induced lockdown, he was introduced to the world of baking.

An ardent chocolate lover, he started learning how to make chocolates using YouTube tutorials. He would share his chocolates with friends and family, and they were always a hit.

Digvijay says he took to his kitchen for his experiments. “There have been errors too, but with time I was able to find the right balance. Initially, I was funding it myself with the money I earned from a part-time job,” he recalls.

When his father bought a new car, they got a chocolate box as a present from the showroom owners. “This gave me the idea of contacting hotel owners and car showroom owners to sell my chocolates to them,” he says.

In 2021, Digvijay got his first order of 1,000 chocolates from a car showroom owner. Later the same year, he launched his brand under the name ‘Saraam’.

He then gave a unique twist to his business by adding Indian fruits to chocolates. To achieve this, he researched indigenously grown fruits, such as kokum, ice apple, etc, to find out which ones go well with chocolate.

“I started out with baer or Indian Jujube, then moved on to saffron and cardamom. I have also experimented with bael, amala, jamun, kokum and rose apple,” he says.

Digvijay sources his cacao from Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the fruits from those parts of the country where they are predominantly grown. For instance, he sources baer from Udaipur, kokum from Kerala, and so on.

He says, “The philosophy behind the move to using Indian native fruits is simple — to give them the importance they deserve. Using these fruits is a very small step but I want to introduce my generation to them.”

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