About Monggo

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The Meaning of "Monggo"

“Monggo” is a Javanese word meaning “please” that people of Yogyakarta use all the time along with a friendly thumb gesture, similar to the sign used by hitchhikers but in a horizontal position.

“Monggo” is used when someone passes in front of you when invited to someone’s house, when you leave, etc. We found this polite expression representing the Javanese culture in the city of Yogyakarta to be the perfect name for our chocolate.

The Story of Monggo

2001 – 2004 | The Beginnings

2005 | The Birth of Monggo Brand

May 2006 | The Earthquake

2007 – 2009 | Moving to Kotagede

2010 – 2014 | The Booming

2015 | A Difficult Year

2017 | Expansion to Bangunjiwo

2020 – 2021 | The Pandemic

2022 | The Slow Recovery

2001 – 2004 | The Beginnings

The first chocolate truffles and other simple homemade chocolate products were displayed on the pink Vespa and given away every Sunday morning from 5am at the "SunMor" market near UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada). Before Chocolate Monggo came to fruition, the chocolatier sold products under "Kulit Cokelat" and "Cacaomania", two concepts that failed but served as a valuable experience. Those years were spent learning continuously about chocolate, as well as looking for supplies and affordable equipment.

2005 | The Birth of The Monggo Brand

Chocolate Monggo was established in 2005 with the idea of making a memorable souvenir from the city of Yogyakarta. We wanted the product to be a premium quality chocolate from Indonesia aimed at tourists while introducing healthy dark chocolate to the local people. We chose recycled paper packaging to reduce the negative impact on the environment and Javanese icons to breathe our identity into each product. Chocolate Monggo was to be a pioneer artisan chocolatier in Yogyakarta and Indonesia.

During this period, the number of employees quickly increased from 1 to 7.

May 2006 | The Earthquake

The first production area was a small house measuring 50 m² in the south of Yogya (partly destroyed in 2006 by the earthquake).

The earthquake of 27 May 2006 is a major event for everyone in Jogja with more than 6ooo casualties. Everyone at Monggo lost their homes and the south of Yogyakarta was in absolute ruin. Collecting money from friends abroad to help our workers and their families was Thierry‘s main focus in the aftermath of the earthquake.

We may have lost our homes, but we were alive and full of energy to continue our chocolate adventure.

By the end of 2006, our production had rapidly increased from 1 kg/day to 10kg/day.

2007 – 2009 | Moving to Kotagede

We started distributing our chocolate products to several local stores with an old Volkswagen van and in 2007 opened our small production facility in the Heritage area of Kotagede – it was an old house just big enough to accommodate our production needs.

We quickly became an attraction for local tourists and national TV Channels keen to find new and unique culinary concepts.

Motivated by this success, we decided to open a small factory store and create more products to be sold directly in Kotagede. People even started to come from the farthest reaches of Yogya to visit us and more workers joined us to produce an increasing quantity of
chocolate.

2010 – 2014 | The Booming

With business booming, Monggo was able to open a new store on Tirtodipuran Street alongside the existing factory store in Kotagede. As we continued to grow, we were able to expand to other cities too, such as Solo, Semarang, and Jakarta.

Soon, the number of employees had increased to 80 with a production capacity of about 150kg/day.

Our production area in the Kotagede house increased to 200 m², meanwhile an office facility was being built on the land next door.

The chocolate was distributed by truck and van all around the Island of Java. We had just started to have a presence in Bali too.

2015 | A Difficult Year

Chocolate Monggo was booming - we opened 2 new stores in Yogyakarta airport.

The number of employees shot up to around 160 with an increased production capacity of 250 to 300 kg/day. At this time, our production facilities were nearly 350 m2 in size.

By upgrading our distribution to Jakarta and Bali, we had to invest in a bigger truck and help each local dispatch with some smaller vehicles.

Our variety of products increased a lot too: bars, tablets, pralines, snacks, cakes, etc. We started to offer many unique flavors, such as Chili, Rendang, Lemon grass, Mango, and
more Dark chocolates with higher cocoa percentages. The Indonesian taste started to change as people began to enjoy less sugar and healthier products.

As the business grew, so did the challenges. 2015 was a complicated year for the company

2017 | Expansion to Bangunjiwo

As we had to create space for growth, we invested in land in Bangunjiwo, Bantul Regency. On the land stood an old house alongside some old warehouses for handicraft production. Everything had to be renovated. First, the old “Joglo” (a traditional wooden Javanese building) became the chocolate store and the old Javanese brick house was transformed into our chocolate museum, an educational place where people could learn everything about chocolate. Local schools started to visit and we added a small “Kedai” to the grounds so that visitors could enjoy homemade chocolate drinks and several interactive activities with chocolate. The factory facility came later with the first room being created to process our cocoa beans.

By this time we had 6 stores in total (5 in Yogya and 1 in Jakarta)

In 2019 the number of employees increased to 200, but our factory stayed almost the same size at around 400 m2. Our Kotagede facility became too limited in space, forcing us to move to a bigger production facility in Bangunjiwo where we began building the new factory. Unfortunately, that’s when the Covid 19 pandemic hit.

2020 – 2021 | The Pandemic

As with most people, the Covid 19 pandemic hit us very hard. Chocolate dropped dramatically and we had to cut costs on every level in order to survive. We were forced to find solutions to adapt to the situation and stay alive. By developing our online sales little by little, we managed to find some income to pay our workers’ salaries. With everybody’s effort to reduce working time, we were able to keep many of our workers.

However, our production dropped to less than 80kg/day.

With less to do and more time to think, we started to get creative and invent new products: Monggo gelato, biscuits, snacks, etc.

We had to temporarily close all our stores and close 3 of them permanently (Jakarta and Yogya airport). Even our beloved Chocolate Museum was closed temporarily.

Despite all of this, we eventually developed our Bangunjiwo Kedai, adding more outdoor seating and a new menu to attract local customers, but of course, the health protocols restricted visitors.

We were not the only ones to suffer; our Cocoa farmers suffered immensely with some going out of business completely or moving to other crops.

2022 | The Slow Recovery

With the ease of travel restrictions, people started to move around again and tourists were back in the first half of 2022. In order to catch the coming “wave” of increased sales, we rebuilt our store on Tirtodipuran street (a touristic area of Yogyakarta) and made it into a more complete concept - "The House of Chocolate and Gelato".

The New Factory
Our new production facilities were finally ready and in July 2022 we moved all of our production to a 1500 m2 factory with higher quality control standards.

Almost all of our clients (supermarkets, hotels, souvenir shops, etc.) were also back in business and they started to order again at an increasing rate.

Let's see what the next few years will bring...

To be continued…

Company Values

CARE

UNIQUE

EDUCATE

GENUINE

SHARE

Monggo's Quality

PREMIUM FERMENTED BEANS
ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGINGS
SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS
AUTHENTIC & DELICIOUS
HALAL & BPOM CERTIFIED

100% COCOA BUTTER
NATURAL INGREDIENTS
BELGIAN ARTISAN CHOCOLATIER
HEALTHY CHOCOLATE
HIGH PRODUCTION STANDARDS

Bean to Bar Production

1 The Cocoa Trees - Theobroma Cacao

2 The Cocoa Pods

3 The Cocoa Beans

4 Fermentation

5 Drying

6 Farm To Factory

7 Grading

8 Slow Roasting & Cooling

9 Cracking & Winnowing

10 Pre Grinding

11 Stone Grinding

12 Conching

13 Ageing

14 Tempering

15 Moulding

16 Cooling & Moulding

17 Primary Packaging

18 Secondary Packaging

19 Warehouse

20 In Store

21 Enjoy Our Chocolate

At The Cocoa Farm

Chocolate Making

Confectionery

Packing & Storage

Enjoy Our Chocolate

At The Cocoa Farm

Chocolate Making

Confectionery

Packing & Storage

Enjoy Our Chocolate

#1 The Cocoa Trees - Theobroma Cacao
The process of making chocolate begins with the cocoa bean, which is the product of the cocoa tree. This tree is strictly a tropical plant thriving only in hot, rainy climates. There are three main types of trees: Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. In Indonesia, we mostly find clones and hybrids of those 3 main species.
#2 The Cocoa Pods
After the harvest, cocoa pods are opened in order to collect the precious cocoa beans they contain. Anywhere from 20 to 50 white cream-coloured beans are scooped from a typical pod.
#3 The Cocoa Beans
After retrieving the wet cocoa beans along with their white pulp, they are put in a wooden fermentation box and covered with banana leaves.
#4 Fermentation
Fermentation is a crucial metabolic process that transforms cocoa beans, allowing them to develop the typical chocolate flavor and the recognizable rich brown color. It generally takes 5 days to complete this process but can vary with the type of beans. In small plantations, the farmers will bring their fresh beans to the local cooperative and leave the job of fermenting the beans to an expert farmer. Unfortunately, in Indonesia, the majority of cocoa beans are still not fermented. This situation is mostly due to a lack of knowledge of this technical process or misconceptions about the fermentation process itself.
#5 Drying
Right after the fermentation process, the cocoa beans are dried under the sun until the water content drops to 6-7%. The dried cocoa beans are stored using natural jute bags to maintain good air circulation and no external contaminations.
#6 Farm to Factory
At Monggo we receive fermented cocoa beans directly from the farmers we work with. Before processing, our quality control team will evaluate the beans by taking samples to check whether the beans’ size (and most importantly quality) meet our standards.

#7 Grading
Grading cocoa beans by size is important, as a bean’s size will affect the time and temperature of the roasting process. Good grading will guarantee a better result.
#8 Slow Roasting & Cooling
The beans are continuously being moved while being heated inside the roaster. The roasting duration varies from fast roasting to slow roasting, depending on the flavour we want to achieve.
#9 Cracking and Winnowing
The “cracking and winnowing” machine helps us to get rid of the inedible shell. A mechanical wheel will grind and break the beans into smaller pieces. Inside the machine, the cracked pieces of pure cocoa and hard shells will be separated by a blower, which pushes the husk out of the machine while collecting the pieces of pure cocoa, also known as “Cocoa Nibs”.
#10 Pre-Grinding
The Pre-Grinder will grind the Cocoa Nibs to form a rough, coherent mass also known as Cocoa Mass, or “cocoa liquor”, one of the main ingredients of authentic chocolate.
#11 Stone-Grinding
We put the cocoa mass together with cocoa butter, sugar, and other ingredients and place them into the stone grinder, where two massive granite stone wheels turn, crunching and mixing the components together. The result of this process can already be called chocolate.
#12 Conching
The so called "Conching Machine" will then use a rotating tool to smash the chocolate in a constant motion while hot air circulates through the mixture. This process will further enhance the characteristic smell and feel of our chocolate. The conching process takes place for a minimum of 12 hours, but may go on for up to 72 hours!
#13 Ageing
The resulting Chocolate needs to stabilize for several weeks in good storage conditions. During this time, the last unpleasant flavours will slowly disappear, after which the chocolate is ready for the final stage of production.

#14 Tempering
Tempering is an important step in the making of authentic chocolate. It ensures that the cocoa butter in the chocolate mix retains its shape. So called “tempered” chocolate will melt at a temperature of approximately 34°C. Therefore, when consumed, chocolate will melt gently in the mouth. A good tempering will also give the chocolate a nice shiny surface. Unfortunately, Indonesia’s climate is too humid for the chocolate to stay shiny for long.
#15 Moulding
To make a pure chocolate bar the tempered chocolate is poured into a mould. The moulds can take on any desired form and size, from the popular tablet shape to more extravagant shapes. Anything is possible with chocolate!
#16 Cooling and Unmoulding
After cooling, a well-tempered chocolate comes easily out of the mould. The chocolate will look shiny, won't melt too easily, and will make a snap sound if broken into pieces

#17 Primary Packaging
In a special chamber, which has to be especially cooled, the chocolate gets wrapped in food-grade aluminium foil, to protect it from any contamination.
#18 Secondary Packaging
Each product gets another protective cover as it is wrapped into Monggo’s original paper packaging - this is when the final product is ready to be sent to your door or to the nearest shop.
#19 Warehouse
In order to maintain its best quality, our chocolate is stored in a cool and dry place. The best temperatures are between 18 and 20 C for bars, tablets, and other plain products, but for pralines and truffles between 6 and 9 C is a must.

#20 In Stores
Enter the World of chocolate and get the best experience in our store. Discover a full range of delights and exclusive products in a Javanese special atmosphere. Our friendly staff will invite you to explore many of our creations before you decide which one is the best for you.
#21 Enjoy Our Chocolate
You just have bought an extraordinary piece of food. Such a long making process with high expertise deserve a bit of your time before let it go through your guts. Open the packaging, take a look at the chocolate, smell it, take a small piece, let it melt on your tongue, feel the smooth texture, sense the flavors, identify the different notes and let your brains release the molecular pleasure. Monggo.

#1 The Cocoa Trees

#2 The Cocoa Pods

#3 The Cocoa Beans

#4 Fermentation

#5 Drying

#6 Farm to Factory

#7 Grading

#8 Slow Roasting & Cooling

#9 Cracking & Winnowing

#10 Pre-Grinding

#11 Stone-Grinding

#12 Conching

#13 Aging

#14 Tempering

#15 Moulding

#16 Cooling & Unmoulding

#17 Primary Packaging

#18 Secondary Packaging

#19 Warehouse

#20 In Store

#21 Enjoy Our Chocolate

The Cocoa Tree - Theobroma Cacao

The process of making chocolate begins with the cocoa bean, which is the product of thecocoa tree. This tree is strictly a tropical plant thriving only in hot, rainy climates. There are three main types of trees: Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. In Indonesia we mostly find clones and hybrids of those 3 main species.

The Cocoa Pods

After the harvest, cocoa pods are opened in order to collect the precious cocoa beans they contain. Anywhere from 20 to 50 white cream coloured beans are scooped from a typical pod.

The Cocoa Beans

After retrieving the wet cocoa beans along with their white pulp, they are put in a wooden fermentation box and covered with banana leaves.

Fermentation

Fermentation is a crucial metabolic process that transforms the cocoa beans, allowing them to develop the typical chocolate flavour and the recognisable rich brown colour. It generally takes 5 days to complete this process but can vary with the type of beans. In small plantations the farmers will bring their fresh beans to the local cooperative and leave the job of fermenting the beans to an expert farmer. Unfortunately, in Indonesia the majority of the cocoa beans are still not fermented. This situation is mostly due to a lack of knowledge of this technical process or to misconceptions about the fermentation process itself.

Drying

Right after the fermentation process, the cocoa beans are dried under the sun until the water content drops to 6-7%. The dried cocoa beans are stored using natural jute bags to maintain good air circulation and no external contaminations.

Farm to Factory

At Monggo we receive fermented cocoa beans directly from the farmers we work with. Before processing, our quality control team will evaluate the beans by taking samples to check whether the beans’ size (and most importantly quality) meet our standards.

Grading

Grading cocoa beans by size is important, as a bean’s size will affect the time and temperature of the roasting process. Good grading will guarantee a better result.

Slow Roasting & Cooling

The beans are continuously being moved while being heated inside the roaster. The roasting duration varies from fast roasting to slow roasting, depending on the flavour we want to achieve.

Cracking and Winnowing

The “cracking and winnowing” machine helps us to get rid of the inedible shell. A mechanical wheel will grind and break the beans into smaller piece. Inside the machine, the cracked pieces of pure cocoa and hard shells will be separated by a blower, which pushes the husk out of the machine while collecting the pieces of pure cocoa, also known as “Cocoa Nibs”.

Pre-Grinding

The Pre-Grinder will grind the Cocoa Nibs to form a rough, coherent mass also known as Cocoa Mass, or “cocoa liquor”, one of the main ingredients of authentic chocolate.

Stone-Grinding

We put the cocoa mass together with cocoa butter, sugar and other ingredients and place them into the stone-grinder, where two massive granite stone wheels turn, crunching and mixing the components together. The result of this process can already be called chocolate.

Conching

The so called "Conching Machine"will then use a rotating tool to smash the chocolate in a constant motion while hot air circulates through the mixture. This process will further enhance the characteristic smell and feel of our chocolate. The conching process takes place for a minimum of 12 hours, but may go on for up to 72 hours!

Aging

The resulting Chocolate needs to stabilize for several weeks in good storage conditions. During this time, the last unpleasant flavours will slowly disappear, after which the chocolate is ready for the final stage of production.

Tempering

Tempering is an important step in the making of authentic chocolate. It ensures that the cocoa butter in the chocolate mix retains its shape. So called “tempered” chocolate will melt at a temperature of approximately 34°C. Therefore, when consumed, chocolate will melt gently in the mouth. A good tempering will also give the chocolate a nice shiny surface. Unfortunately, Indonesia’s climate is too humid for the chocolate to stay shiny for long.

Moulding

To make a pure chocolate bar the tempered chocolate is poured into a mould. The moulds can take on any desired form and size, from the popular tablet shape to more extravagant shapes. Anything is possible with chocolate!

Cooling and Unmoulding

After cooling, a well-tempered chocolate comes easily out of the mould.

Primary Packaging

In a special chamber, which has to be especially cooled, the chocolate gets wrapped in food grade aluminium foil, to protect it from any contamination.

Secondary Packaging

Each product gets another protective cover as it is wrapped into Monggo’s original paper packaging - this is when the final product is ready to be sent to your door or to the nearest shop.

Warehouse

In Store

Enjoy Our Chocolate

While creating our chocolate, each step of the production process is carefully controlled by our qualified team of experts to ensure that you receive the best possible product.

Chocolate does not like heat or humidity/water and it affects its texture and colour. Real chocolate is mostly made of cocoa butter and this fat will absorb surrounding smells! So, make sure you keep it away from soap, detergents, fish, etc.

Some insects love Cocoa and chocolate, especially the cocoa moth that is attracted by the chocolate’s smell. This particular insect is known to lay eggs near the source of that sweet smell and the tiny larvae will find its way to delicious chocolate – so be sure to eat it before they do!

Certifications

Testimonials

House of Chocolate Monggo & Gelato Tirtodipuran

4.6

De' Virach

10:50 27 Dec 22

Jadi pilihan unik untuk oleh oleh atau buat pecinta coklat.Terdapat berbagai varian rasa yang dapat dicoba dan dibawa pulang.Bentuk nya lucu lucu.Harga sesuai dengan kualitas.Es krimnya juga beraneka rasa, semua enak.Duduk diluar dengan tema kursi santai dan pasir pantai.Parkiran memang tidak luas, tapi bisa parkir dipinggir jalan dan dipandu.

wangsit waskito

08:35 24 Oct 22

Tempat ke"kini"an untuk aneka es krim dan produk coklat. Sangat ramai saat lebaran, nataru dan liburan sekolah. Disarankan datang lebih awal/pagi agar dapat menikmati aneka hidangan dengan lebih nikmat & nyaman. Harga premium sesuai dengan kualitas rasa yang juga premium. Tersedia area parkir mobil yang cukup memadai di depan dan samping resto.

Nunuk Ambarwati

00:12 09 Aug 22

Nice :) Tempatnya akan asik buat hangout bareng". Meski menunya ngga banyak, tapi cukup sekali buat chill out. Banyak pilihan ccklat yang enak enak. Juga ada gelato. Ada gelato rasa kemangi, kecombrang juga bunga telang. Bisa cicip dulu buat mutusin mau rasa apa.Ruang dine in nya indoor dan outdoor. Indoornya dingin banget AC nya. Mungkin buat jagain supaya coklat"nya juga tetep firm. Outdoornya nice, bernuansa santai seperti di pantai lengkap dengan pasir putihnya :)Waktu itu saya dan suami pesan kopi dan cappucino sudah dapat coklat kecil dari Monggo buat temen minum :) Kalau buat makanannya, hmm, saya ngga begitu suka, ngga fresh.Tempat parkirnya agak terbatas buat kendaraan roda 4, tapi ada petugas parkir buat memandu.Dulu pernah kesini waktu masih gabung sama Lotus Mio, sekarang mereka hanya Chocolate Monggo saja.

Mohamad Taufiq

12:07 03 Aug 22

Ini adalah referensi oleh2 buat yang mau beda dan tidak mau bakpia. Coklatnya enak bgt pecinta coklat pasti bakal suka ini sih, kalau ga percaya di tempatnya ada testernya bisa di coba. Kalau untuk harga sebenernya emang sedikit mahal, tapi kualitas dan rasa coklatnya juga sebanding dengan harga, jadi untuk yang mau beli ini ga bakal nyesel👍

indria

16:25 14 May 22

Jumat jajan kemarin krn cuaca panas banget kami pen makan yg seger dan dingin akhirnya kami meluncur ke Coklat Monggo krn kami liat di IG mereka punya produk baru di Gelato nya.. Lokasinya di daerah Tirtodipuran sebelah barat Prawirotaman. Pilihan makan dan menunya ga banyak sepertinya hanya menyediakan dessert aja no main course. Kami beli Gelato 2 scoop dgn harga 29 rb, Air mineral 1/2 lt 10 rb , Milk Chocolate 29 rb, Crepes Coklat 28 rb . Sebenernya kalo kt makan ice cream palkng enak minum air putih dingin. Krn kmrn aku pesen milk Chocolate jd kurang bisa menikmati minumannya. Oiya, crepes choco nya bagi sy terlalu lering dan asin jd kurang aja menurutku. Tp untuk produk gelato dan coklatnya enak kok krn khas nya Monggo ini mereka produksi sendiri jd kelezatan coklatnya ga perlu di ragukan lagi. Pen baliknlg ke Monggo kafe pen coba strawberry dan matcha gelatonyaa 😍🤩🤗🤤🤤🤤

About Monggo

The Meaning of "Monggo"

The Story of Monggo

2001 – 2004 | The Beginnings

2005 | The Birth of The Monggo Brand

May 2006 | The Earthquake

2007 – 2009 | Moving to Kotagede

2010 – 2014 | The Booming

2015 | A Difficult Year

2017 | Expansion to Bangunjiwo

2020 – 2021 | The Pandemic

2022 | The Slow Recovery

Company Values

Monggo's Quality

Bean to Bar Production

Certifications

Testimonials

THE CHOCOLATE KINGDOM

Bangunjiwo - Bantul

HOUSE OF CHOCOLATE & GELATO

Tirtodipuran Street - Yogyakarta

HEAD OFFICE

Kotagede - Yogyakarta

Our Newsletter

About Monggo

Certification

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FAQ

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Chocolate Factory

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Kedai & Gelato