Chocolatein Signature, From Habits To Raising Indonesian Chocolate To The World

TANGERANG - From a simple experiment in the kitchen of the house, Chocolatein Signature now stands as one of the brands of Indonesian premium chocolate drinks that are becoming known in the global market.

Through the Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) 2025 event, the brand of chocolate drinks founded by Irena Surosoputra emphasized its mission to raise local cocoa to world standards.

Founded in 2016, Chocolatein Signature stems from Irena's personal habit as a chocolate fan who wants to find a replacement for her favorite drink from a homemade foreign brand in the form of cocoa drink powder.

From a small experiment in the kitchen, an idea was born to present quality chocolate with a distinctive taste of Indonesia. He started offering his products to colleagues and received a positive response. Finally, he decided to make it a business.

"In the beginning, I felt that many Indonesian chocolates were good, but each of them had taste, my tongue prefers imported chocolate but the price is quite high. Finally, I took the initiative to make my own, every one of my friends came to my house, I said," said Irena when met at the 40th Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI), Tangerang, Banten, written Thursday, October 16.

At the start of the business, Irena admitted that she did not understand the chocolate industry. He also decided to study autodidactly, do research, and find out the fact that Indonesia is the third largest cocoa producer in the world.

"I myself honestly, as an Indonesian citizen, I don't know, we know that chocolate is definitely from Switzerland, Belgium, that's where my interest in Indonesian chocolate began, learning autodidak, we searched ourselves until we finally met our farmer partners," he said.

Now, Chocolate Signature is in partnership with cocoa farmers in South Sulawesi and East Java. Its products are made without preservatives, without artificial perias, and without synthetic sweeteners making it an option for consumers who prioritize natural ingredients.

"Especially for East Java, I highlight because the variety is the most premium, rare variety, which only has 5 percent in the world. So Indonesia has a variety of rare cocoa beans, the best which unfortunately lacks exposure. Chocolatein processes cocoa beans called criollo from East Java, we call Java Criollo the first criollo chocolate drink powder in Indonesia," he explained.

Chocolatein's business journey did not go smoothly. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Irena actually decided to reorganize her business and rebrand to become a Chocolate Signature.

"Indeed, from the beginning the mission had wanted to downstream the product so that people would be aware that chocolate was good, not only from abroad, in Indonesia there was also," he said.

Although starting from the kitchen of the house, the Chocolatein Signature product has now penetrated foreign markets ranging from the United States to Hong Kong.

"We have exported it, but the capacity is not large. Because earlier we were idealists who didn't want to export it in the form of raw materials, so it's as a brand. We've exported it to the US, it's Boston and then Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong," he said.

Irena said that the participation of Chocolatein Signature in various events such as the 2025 Food SMEs was part of a long process full of challenges.

"Honestly, we've been participating in this award food for three years in a row, and this year we've just been selected. So it's quite challenging," he explained.