From Simple Experiment, Cokelatin Elevates Authentic Indonesian Cocoa Flavour to the Global Market

The desire to enjoy a cup of chocolate with an authentic cocoa flavour was the starting point for the birth of Cokelatin Indonesia. Beginning with a simple concoction in a home kitchen, the artisan chocolate beverage product has successfully penetrated the international market. Cokelatin founder Irena Surosoputra recounted that the business she pioneered stemmed from unease with her daily lifestyle. Before building her business, she was an office worker accustomed to consuming instant coffee to support her activities. However, she began to realise this habit was not good if sustained long-term. Armed with her fondness for chocolate, Irena then switched to consuming chocolate drinks. “So eventually I decided to shift my consumption from instant coffee to chocolate drinks,” Irena said when met in Jakarta recently. When trying various chocolate drinks on the market, Irena felt she had not found a product capable of delivering a strong cocoa flavour. According to her, most of the chocolate products consumed were too dominated by sweetness. Irena then began experimenting with mixing pure cocoa powder with various compositions of sugar and non-dairy creamer until she produced a taste that suited her palate. From these experiments, a belief emerged that the concoction had business potential. In 2015, Irena began conducting deeper research into the cocoa industry and discovered that Indonesia is one of the world’s largest cocoa producers, yet it is not known as a producer of premium chocolate products. “But we are not known as a producer of quality chocolate products. From that concern, Cokelatin was born,” she explained. Stemming from this, Cokelatin was officially established in 2016. Irena chose to use cocoa beans from South Sulawesi and East Java as the main raw materials. All products are made without added artificial flavours so that the original character of Indonesian cocoa is preserved. To date, Cokelatin only has four main variants: Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Creamy Latte, and Java Criollo. “Because our mission is to introduce the authentic taste of Indonesian chocolate,” said Irena. The name Cokelatin was born from a combination of the words chocolate, Irena, and her husband’s name, Nugroho. Before venturing into business, Irena worked as an event organiser, while her husband had a career in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. Irena began marketing her chocolate drink concoctions to office colleagues. Every day, she brought a tumbler filled with her chocolate concoction, which attracted the attention of her friends. “Eventually, many friends placed orders with me,” she recalled. After six months of serving orders from her office colleagues, the income earned was already equivalent to her monthly salary as an employee. Seeing this opportunity, Irena dared to build Cokelatin more seriously with initial capital of around Rp20 million. Cokelatin’s journey further developed after joining the Rumah BUMN BRI in Jakarta in 2018. At that time, Irena admitted she still had minimal knowledge about business development. Through various training sessions provided by Rumah BUMN, she began to understand the importance of product certification, packaging, digital marketing, and strategies for building a sustainable business. “The training from Rumah BUMN BRI really helped us grow. Both from the digital training for packaging and the certification training,” Irena explained. In addition to training, Cokelatin was also regularly involved in various exhibitions facilitated by BRI. A key moment came in 2021 when Cokelatin won first place as UMKM Si Idola at the Pesta Rakyat Simpedes (PRS) BRI event. This award opened the opportunity to participate in an international exhibition in Boston, United States, in 2022. “That was our first export,” Irena said. As an MSME fostered by BRI, Cokelatin also regularly participates in the UMKM EXPO(RT) BRILIANPRENEUR. Irena believes that participation in various exhibitions facilitated by BRI has opened many opportunities for her business’s development. “Thanks to BRI, we have been able to open up further market penetration,” she stated. Since its first export to the United States, Cokelatin has expanded its market to Taiwan, China, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia, and is currently exploring the Japanese market. Although export volumes have not yet reached one container because the products marketed are value-added retail products, the market response has been considered very positive. One of the most sought-after products is Java Criollo, a chocolate drink made from Criollo cocoa originating from Jember, East Java. The Criollo variety is known as one of the rarest types of cocoa in the world, contributing less than 2% to global cocoa production. “Alhamdulillah, this variant is in high demand in the overseas market,” said Irena. In the domestic market, Cokelatin has also supplied products to several five-star hotels such as Grand Hyatt Jakarta, Pullman Jakarta, and DoubleTree. According to Irena, many foreign tourists enjoy the natural flavour character of Java Criollo. Thanks to the various market accesses facilitated by BRI, including to export markets, Cokelatin’s business has also grown. Irena revealed that exports have helped boost the company’s turnover. “Around a 5% increase in turnover, that is quite significant,” she said. Looking ahead, Japan is one of the countries being targeted as a potential market for Cokelatin. Besides having participated in exhibitions in the country twice, Irena sees the Japanese government’s support for quality products as providing a considerable opportunity. Currently, Cokelatin has a production capacity of around six tonnes per month.