About
It all started when…
Goya & The Indian Cacao & Craft Chocolate Festival
CACAO RESIDENCY
October 10–12, 2025 | Varanshi Farms, Karnataka
3 immersive days of storytelling, soil, and slow food
art, skill, and practice behind food, farming, and storytelling
DAY 1 — FRIDAY, OCT 10
12:00 PM — Arrival & Farm-Fresh Lunch A community lunch featuring produce from the farm. Meet your fellow residents and hosts.
2:30 PM — Walking the Land: A Forager’s Walk and Harvest with Partha Varanashi A guided exploration of the farm. Learn about seasonal crops, wild edibles, and how a farm tells its own stories. Hands-on harvesting experience. Harvest produce with Eleni Michael.
4:30 PM — Tea & Snacks
5:00 PM — How to Find Stories in Unexpected Places by Bhavya Pansari
An interactive session on sharpening your eye for stories — in people, ingredients, or landscapes. Learn how to ask better questions, read between the lines, and notice the unnoticed.
A. Understanding Your Camera
A practical session on unlocking your camera’s potential — from technical basics to tips on framing, light, and capturing details that tell a story.
B. Forest Bathing with Bhavya Pansari & Patricia Cosma
A guided nature walk designed to slow you down and sharpen your senses. Observe, absorb, and document the world with fresh eyes.
6:30 PM — Fermentation with Eleni Michael Work together with Eleni to prepare the harvested produce for fermentation. Learn the fundamentals of fermentation over conversation and a practical workshop.
8:00 PM — Community Dinner Under the Stars
DAY 2 — SATURDAY, OCT 11
8:30 AM — Farmhouse Breakfast
9:00 AM — Storytelling assignment by Bhavya Pansari
9:30 AM — Lessons in Regenerative Farming: Building a Farm that Heals the Land & its People by Partha Varanashi Explore the principles of regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, and soil-first thinking. Understand how farm systems can regenerate ecosystems and communities.
11:00 AM — Bean to Bar: Developing Flavours in the Chocolate Lab with Ketki Churi Hands-on in the chocolate lab: discover how fermentation, roasting, and origin influence chocolate flavour. Then make your own tasting bar!
12:30 PM — Lunch of Farm Grains & Forest Greens
2:00 PM — Peer Review + Basics of Editing (Bhavya Pansari)
Review each story through a critical lens. Sharpen your editorial instincts, learn how to give and receive feedback, and refine your storytelling with thoughtful edits.
4:00 PM — Tea & Snacks
4:30 PM — The Taste of Terroir: Cacao Tasting with Patricia Cosma A curated tasting of single-origin chocolate / cacao drink. Learn to taste for notes, terroir, and how fermentation and soil impact flavour).
6:30 PM — Fire & Feast: Dinner Prep with Chef Goku Another hands-on session — focus on open-fire techniques and simple, flavour-forward dishes.
8:00 PM — Farm Table Dinner & Fireside Conversations
DAY 3 — SUNDAY, OCT 12
8:30 AM — Farmhouse Breakfast
9:00 AM — From Soil to Gut — Understanding Nutrition & Microbiomes with Partha Varanasi How the health of soil links to gut health — the science behind diverse diets, soil microbes, and nutrition bioavailability.
10:30 AM — Food as Story: How to Tell Stories Through Ingredients & Traditions with Anisha Oommen & Patricia Cosma A collaborative conversation and exercise on finding narratives within food, from community recipes to cultural context.
12:30 PM — Lunch by the Lake: A Harvest Feast A celebratory meal cooked with what you’ve harvested, prepped, and learned, featuring contributions from the resident chefs and participants.
2:00 PM — Goodbyes & Transfers to Airport/City
Additional Inclusions:
• Tea/Coffee & Snacks stocked in cottages throughout
• Open access to farm trails for morning walks
• Evening bonfires on request
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Varanashi Farms
Varanashi Organic Farms is a 100-acre regenerative farm in Moodambailu, Karnataka, passed down through six generations of the Varanashi family since 1816. The farm specialises in a multi-storey cropping system to grow arecanut, cocoa, nutmeg, pepper, rice, fruits, and vegetables. Sixty percent of the land remains an untouched forest, supporting rich biodiversity. The farm is also a centre for ecological learning, offering immersive volunteer programs, a canopy-level treehouse stay, and hands-on workshops and retreats in sustainable living, cacao processing, and permaculture.
Patricia Cosma
A Romanian-born champion of craft chocolate, Patricia Cosma is renowned for building bridges between cocoa farmers and chocolate artisans across India—transforming the nation’s cocoa landscape. Her advocacy spotlights sustainable sourcing, empowers farmers, and celebrates the minute differences in bean origins. She’s not just talking chocolate—she’s creating a movement grounded in taste, community, and cultural preservation. She is the Co‑Founder, Indian Cacao & Craft Chocolate Festival, a movement celebrating single-origin cacao, small-batch craft chocolate, and bean-to-bar processes
Ketki Churi
Ketki Churi is a dedicated bean-to-bar chocolate artisan and cacao specialist with over seven years of experience transforming raw cacao into quality craft chocolate. She is the Co‑Founder, Indian Cacao & Craft Chocolate Festival — brings together artisans, farmers, and consumers to elevate India’s craft chocolate ecosystem
Partha Varanashi
Partha Varanashi is a regenerative farmer, molecular biologist, and sixth-generation owner of Varanashi Organic Farms. He has a Master’s in Agricultural Biotechnology from the University of Adelaide and has worked with the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and LawrieCo Biological Farming. A certified swim coach and Director of Surf Life Saving India, he coached Team India at the 2019 FINA World Championships. At the farm, he leads its volunteer programs, sustainability workshops, and movement-based learning.
Bhavya Pansari
Bhavya Pansari is a multidisciplinary photographer, filmmaker, and creative director known for capturing soulful, unvarnished stories through slow, analog-driven imagery. Bhavya's work is tactile, evocative, and film-inspired—the kind that leans into mood, texture, and the small rituals weaving everyday life and food cultures together.
Anisha Rachel Oommen
Anisha Rachel Oommen is a writer, editor, and media entrepreneur who has shaped the conversation around contemporary Indian food culture. As Co‑Founder and Editorial Director of Goya Media, she leads a multidisciplinary team that crafts narrative-driven content, brand storytelling, and culinary experiences — all rooted in the belief that food is the most powerful lens to explore people, places, and communities.