New Delhi, July 17 -- At Dodā Atelier in Goa, Alvinia DeSouza slides a cup across the counter. It's a drinking chocolate-70% dark, made from cacao she grows herself. It is nothing like the milky brown sweetness most people expect when they hear the words hot chocolate. It's short, almost austere, with a clean bitterness at the front and a lingering floral note underneath. The cacao comes from The Happy Hermit Estate, her 10-acre farm in Bedshi, Dodamarg, on the Goa-Maharashtra border where cacao trees are grown alongside jackfruit, cashew, chikoo and love apples.

Most of us grew up on a version of hot chocolate, most commonly as a spoonful of cocoa powder stirred into warm milk. That childhood memory is exactly what a new breed of c...