When In Manila. In a quaint little café in Quezon City, I met up with the owners of Réal Cacao and they asked me to name a Filipino chocolate brand at the top of my head. This has been their little experiment ever since they started their company and to much astonishment, people end up saying brands which are not Filipino to begin with. This has been the reason why Réal Cacao started. With their humble beginnings rooted in a university senior year social enterprise project; this school requirement turned into a career and life goal for the three owners of the cacao brand. Their dream is to be able to be THAT Filipino chocolate brand that people recall at the top of their heads.
They have travelled from all over the country to scour for the best cacao and the best roasting techniques to be able to offer the market their 100% Grade A cacao. Typically, the known use of such tableas is for champorados only. However, based on the various ways that Réal Cacao has been used by their commercial and home-based clients, it can be said that their pure cacao has that rich, dark, earthy aroma and taste that mixes well with baked goods such as brownies, cupcakes, and even to their colder counterparts, in the form of Chocochili ice cream served in a small café called Enchanted Farm Café in Quezon City.
Delectable brownies made with Réal Cacao
On the topic of what they want to achieve in their entrepreneurial efforts, they mention a quote from Dylan Wilke “Filipinos are world class,” which encompasses their aspiration to make the world see that Filipinos are indeed world class in terms of cacao as the country has already been cited as one of the prime sources of the product. Aside from this, they aim to allow the small farmers to be able to dream bigger and see that their products are of high quality; and thus, can be made into products that can be sold as proudly Filipino-made—an empowerment to the third world, as we deemed it in the discourse.
Currently, they are to put up a showcase in Enchanted Farm in Bulacan where they would feature chocolate-making and such in time for the Social Business Summit held there in October where delegates from Europe, Australia, and the likes would congregate in the Philippines to showcase their social enterprises.
“We want to create that Filipino chocolate brand that would compete globally,” Gigi, one of the owners concludes. A big dream, they often joke, but with a product and a goal as Réal Cacao’s there is no doubt they would reach the level of the big names in the chocolate business.
For more information and for orders: https://www.facebook.com/RealCacao?fref=ts
Réal Cacao: Bringing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the Philippines
