Sweet Success
Malagos Chocolate picks up third international award
Fresh from its triumph at the 2015 International Chocolate Awards’ World Drinking Chocolate Competition, where it received a silver medal last October in Hannover, Germany for its 65 percent dark chocolate drink, it has picked up yet another award in London, this time a silver, at the Academy of Chocolate Awards for its 100 percent unsweetened chocolate. This is the second award from the Academy that the innovative Davao-based chocolate maker has received. Last April 2015, Malagos was given the bronze award for the same product in the same category. In an interview, Malagos Chocolate sales and marketing director Rex Puentespina says they are elated with the result. “We’re happy that Malagos stepped up and improved its world position, from bronze in 2015 to silver this year. It’s about time that the world recognizes the high quality chocolates we produce here in the country. Philippine soil is actually one of the best in the world for growing cacao. With hope, this will spur more growers to strive for better production methods and technology. The government, for one, is starting to take notice that this long static and almost neglected Filipino product has great potentials to become big in the international market.
Rex Puentespina does not rest on his laurels, as he aims to make his chocolate and cacao trees as a byword among foodies worldwide by being a step above the rest in terms of equipment. Malagos Chocolate has percentages that go from 65 percent to 72 percent to 85 percent where the flavors increase in complexity as the percentages go higher. The fruitiness of Malagos speaks of the terroir of Calinan on the foot of Mount Apo where the best fruits in the country thrive. New markets like Japan and some European countries are now privy to these Malagos chocolate variants.
After garnering awards and obtaining high ratings of our domestic cacao beans being made into bars by foreign chocolate houses, a great consciousness for Philippine chocolate has finally arisen.
CHOCOLATE CONSCIOUSNESS
Years ago, I met with a group of cacao trailblazers who believed in their product and in the excellent growing conditions of the Philippines as it is part of the world
cacao belt which is in the equatorial areas that makes excellent chocolate cultivation. In one of our discussions, during the all Filipino chocolate dinner that had chocolate from start to finish, we discussed cacao as the great legacy of Spain. It had sent via the Acapulco trade the heirloom varieties that are almost extinct but highly coveted strains, which the chcolate growers realized were still more complex and flavorful than the higher yielding hybrids that were brought in and planted on incentive programs by the giant confectionary and food companies. This spurred a hunt for neglected or un-prized cacao trees that were actually the original Criollo strains brought by the Spanish colonizers. Farms suddenly began to identify survivors of these “low yield” varieties that were sidelined for years when growers favored the higher yielding but mediocre tasting varieties.
Here are a few friends who are trailblazers in their field of chocolate growing, processing or booth and their recent studies in contributing to the Philippine chocolate scene:
Risa’s
Though this company is a bean to bar maker and is not a cacao grower, Pam Cinco is certainly one of the most visible artisanal chocolates because of their company’s established presence in food events. Pam processes her chosen Philippine from prime growers and dyes them in small batches. Like many pastry chefs and chocolate makers, she also has the feel for blending some of her own locally grown and processed chocolate with imported with prime grade foreign brands. Risa’s is not only bold and innovative with her combinations but creates designs that can compete with top brands and artisanal makers. The newest item is Risa’s chocolate chips. These are now made smooth by Pam’s new concher. Risa’s chocolate style is low in acid and has notes of caramel, earth, and spice.
Theo and Philo
Owned by two brothers who are daringly innovative with their chocolate flavor or filling combinations like chocolate bars with adobo, tuyo, and chili, Theo and Philo process their own pure chocolate bars from bean roasting to some very stylish packaging. They are now working on everyday chocolate confections such as candy bars, chocolate spreads, and chocolate-covered dried mangoes. Their pure chocolate style contains a balance of fruit, floral, earthy, and spice. Magdalena’s This is a Laguna-based grower and processor, owned by Gerry Baron who is smart and lucky enough to keep his heirloom varieties of chocolate that he sells in nuggets when processed. Gerry has a direct line with the best Mindanao growers and is a progeny of growing the rare, expensive, and sought after Criollo varieties which are direct descendants of the Manila-Acapulco trade and of Spanish religious history. His pure chocolate nuggets evoke wine, fruit, flowers, and earth. He is expanding his planting of these rare heirloom varieties.
Kablon Farms
Jun Pantua is the inexhaustible spirit behind this beautiful farm that is blessed with an excellent microclimate and produces jams, honey, and other native delicacies. His father who started the cacao trees planted them from seed and is one of the places that have the most Criollo and Trinitario strains. They are expanding the planting of these trees. Kablon chocolate is rustic and is stone ground to produce the old fashioned style of chocolate bars, though the chocolate is finished in a more state of the art tempering machine to create a shiny fine appearance. Kablon chocolate is full flavored because Jun’s fermentation techniques are sought after by small boutique processors. His chocolate is nutty, earthy, and reminiscent of dried fruit, pepper and capsicum. Jun’s beans reach as far as Italy where the boutique chocolate makers laud them as the best in Southeast Asia. Like his friend Gerry Baron from Laguna, Jun is involved in idea of single origin and single variety cacao beans in order to show the quality of the growing environment or terrior.
Coco Dolce
This line is owned by Petteri Makitalo and seems to have a great appeal to the mid and upper markets as it has its presence in supermarket chains. The chocolate bar is rich with floral and caramel notes plus a creamy coconut sugar finish. His new variants are with pili and chili.
Dizon Farms
Sonny Dizon who is the King of Fruit here in the Philippines has started cultivation of a Criollo tree they had found in a nearby province. New and imported machinery will provide for the production of single origin that bears the Dizon Farms signature and the terroir he has chosen.
Although the future of Philippine chocolate may seem to open up to a new dawn, there are some fears that will affect this industry that is on its infant stage. Major players who have the machinery and the funds to buy high can ruin the foundations set up by these innovators. Growers or farmers who are blinded by instant high prices of their crops and will settle for cheap, mediocre and higher yielding crops that killed this industry a few decades ago may have a historical repeat of this tragedy. The essence of what these artisanal makers and growers is to capture the upper strata of the market and not lock horns with the African cacao bulk market. We have been recognized as premium and it would be better to cater to such a market segment and focus on quality.
‘Philippine soil is actually one of the best in the world for growing cacao. With hope, this will spur more growers to strive for better production methods and technology.’