Tablea café taps global delivery app

Cebuano owned Tablea Chocolate Cafe has ventured into digital expansion through its partnership with global delivery app — Foodpanda.

Instead of setting up more physical stores to take advantage of the lucrative food market in Cebu, the company opted to make use of digital highway to grow its business, said Bayani Jess Garcia, Tablea Chocolate Cafe corporate secretary.

Garcia said apart from being cost efficient in operations, its partnership with Foodpanda is also seen to promote the local Filipino tradition of drinking "Tablea" or (chocolate drink made from Cacao), and other Tablea-based products to the younger market, who is now largely influenced by coffeedrinking culture.

"I see tablea not just as a product but a 'time machine', which brings back memories from childhood," said Garcia, expressing his passion to keep this tradition and "should not be forgotten."

Tablea Chocolate Cafe now has three outlets, one located in JY Square in Lahug, and its commissary in Mandaue City and another outlet in Dipolog City.

Its partnership with Foodpanda will make Tablea Cafe's whole menu available for delivery within the cities of Mandaue and Cebu. This way, the café’s products will not be limited to walk-in guests in their outlets but also to people craving for Tablea-based products and drinks from their offices, homes, and even during special occasions.

Being present in the digital world will make the tablea tradition alive especially to the younger market--whose generation is slowly veering farther from traditions, Garcia added.

Tablea Chocolate Cafe, inspired by tradition and “perfected by passion”, was created to preserve and re-introduce a long-standing Filipino pastime of drinking “sikwate” or Tablea.

Table as are pure cacao beans that are dried, roasted, ground and then formed into tablets traditionally used in the Philippines to make hot chocolate.

The company seeks to continue this Filipino tradition, while at the same time bring it to a whole new level by creating and providing inventive and high-quality chocolate drinks and desserts.

It also supports the local cacao growing industry by promoting to its patrons that Philippine made products are not only equal to imports but also provide economic and social benefits for the country.

Its products include the Filipinos’ childhood classics like champorado (thick chocolate rice pudding), and sikwate (hot chocolate), along with the cafe’s best sellers such as Tablea layer cake, silvanas, and its signature chocolate-covered cacao beans, among others.

The foodpanda group on the other hand, is a global mobile food delivery marketplace headquartered in Berlin, Germany, operating in 24 countries and territories, including the Philippines.

In Cebu, Foodpanda has over 300 partners.