Cacao is endemic in the locality of Maria Aurora. In the neighborhood of Brgy. Diaat alone, cacao trees are grown in backyards. I was even shown of one resilient and abundantly fruiting cacao that is precariously thriving on a rocky ground on one end of the bridge just on top of its abutment. The tree appears like dangling on a cliff above the rushing water. In other locations close by the river are some tall cacao trees that are intercropped with coconut and other trees. The trees are more than five years old and showing some of the common cacao diseases.

So what was the inspiration for setting up the farm? Below is a quote from Mr. Fabros:

Fabros Farm'spioneering spirit and noble goal of providing livelihood to the people of their barangay is laudable. Despite the many challenges and their lack of experience, the family enterprise make up for it with their collective effort and enthusiasm to see to it that their venture succeed. With its humongous size Fabros Farm is not just a cacao farm but a cacao forest full of potentials.

Read more here - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2014/05/fabros-farm-more-than-just-cacao-farm.html

Cacao sense is common sense

Most of our practices are based on common sense, keen observations and experiences gained throughout the years of our operations. In the farm, we have existing shade trees, like madre de kakaw and the big grasses served also as shade. Since our seedlings were being transported from another place we made sure that the seedlings recovered first, before they get re-planted. We even dug deeper and wider holes using our invented hole digger for planting the trees. Our approach to pest is more of an integrated pest management. Most of the time we use organic inputs, but as a balance, we also use chemical pesticides, herbicides, and weedicides, especially, at that time when the cacao seedlings were still growing. Through time we have learned the life cycle of insects. We also learned when and where to spray, and where these insects hide during day time. We had a very bad experience on grafted cacao trees. Of the 100 field grafted cacao seedlings, only one survived. So we stopped grafting and let the cacao seedlings grow naturally. Besides, the life span of un-grafted seedlings is longer than the grafted ones. We are also particular at record keeping. We have assigned one of our workers in monitoring and filling data of the farm journal we devised. It contains information as to their daily, weekly and monthly tasks. That way, we can keep track of their output and can also know the status of the cacao trees. At first, we even kept data of the weight of the harvested pods including its thickness; weight of beans, before and after mucilage is removed; the weight of beans before and after fermentation; and weight loss before and after drying the beans.

Read more here - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2014/04/cacao-sense-story-of-dingayan-cacao-farm.html

Dingayan Cacao Farm prides itself for the cleanest cacao beans in Lasam, Cagayan, Philippines.

Contact Info:

Although devoid of those grand and fancy eye candy decors its sheer simplicity makes you more focused on the essence of what chocolate is. A centerpiece of chocolate display but it was a cornucopia of the festival's uniqueness with their emphasis on organic cacao products and highlighting local artisan chocolatiers.

Impressive was the effort that couple Alex and Jessica of Choco Locco Gourmet of Chocolate have put together to organize the Philippine Chocolate Festival. I am happy that there are individuals crazy enough to showcase the talents of budding artisan chocolatiers and cacao growers. And make the public understand the effort of farmers to produce cacao and the talent and love of artisan chocolatiers and chefs to produce nice chocolates and dishes and drinks with chocolate. Participants like students from Rizal and the public in general benefited a lot from those talks and presentations and the many chocolate trivia and facts that were shared.

Read more here - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2014/02/philippine-chocolate-festival-2014.html#.UwdXOGKSx23

Finally my first homemade chocolate from bean-to-bar! The cacao came from the province of Aurora, Philippines. Fermented and dried the beans and then toasted and grinded/blended to make it into a bar. Read more here:

http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-own-bean-to-bar-chocolate-making.html

For pinoychocophiles the highlight of the WOFEX 2013 is the exhibit and booth of Malagos Chocolate !Philippines' first dark chocolate with an origin from Malagos, Davao City, Philippines. That's from tree-to-bar (grown and processed in the country), 65% Dark Chocolate.

Read more here:

http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2013/08/malagos-chocolate-is-here.html#.Uf1aDtKW_sY

I would like to share this blog post:

Below were questions asked to me by Zy of The Filipino Lifestyle , I like to share my answers here. Hobbyist in Focus: Pete Rahon was the title of the article. Excerpts were culled from my answers below.

1. How did you get into blogging about chocolate?

I discovered pinterest.com and from there it reawakened my fond memory of eating my first chocolate cake that my aunt baked for me. I started f repining all those beautiful photos of chocoIate cakes. Then I thought of blogging about chocolate. I thought of pinoychocophile (Filipino lover of chocolate) for a name. I found out that unlike in other countries that blog solely about chocolate, here in the country I believe I am the first blogger to blog only about chocolate. Some food bloggers do blog about chocolate but not their primary blogging niche.


2. Did you plan to be a chocolate blogger from the start or was it just coincidence?

So it was not planned at all since I have several blogs already from personal to social issues. So this chocolate blog was a product of my interest of chocolate cakes. I am still in the process of developing it since even for chocolate as a topic you can go as varied with your subtopics. For now I like to do reviews or tasting of those chocolates made by Filipino artisan chocolatiers ( like Theo and Philo and Machiavelli among others) and also those other foreign commercial brandsbut mostly dark chocolates (more than 60% cacao content) . But I would also like to write about the history and tradition of chocolate in the country like doing a review of the best Tablea that are used to make hot chocolate drink. Since we have good producers from Batangas, Cebu and Davao. In line with that, I would like to visit cacao plantations and write about how they are grown and produced. Also, There are also several restaurants that serves mostly chocolate in their menu like Heavenly Chocolate in Roces Avenue in Quezon City. So I would like to review also the chocolate food and drinks served in those restos.

Read more here - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2012/09/chocolate-blogging-more-fun-in.html#.UF8XLa4X04Q

I definitely like and love chocolates.

And I find this quote chocolicious:

There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.

and more here - http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/50-quotes-about-chocolate.html

"Chocolate is a divine, celestial drink, the sweat of the stars, the vital seed, divine nectar, the drink of the gods, panacea and universal medicine." - Geronimo Piperni, quoted by Antonio Lavedn, Spanish army surgeon,1796.

I just felt this itch to blog about chocolate. Lately I have been collecting/curating or pinning images of chocolates and even those products of Filipino cholatiers here are the links:

Pinoy Chocophile
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/pinoy-chocophile/

Tsokolate
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/tsokolate/

Bliss Luxury Choclates
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/bliss-luxury-chocolates/

Machiavelli Chocolatier
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/machiavelli-chocolatier/

Maitre Chocolatier
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/maitre-chocolatier/

Risa Chocolates
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/risa-chocolates/

Tablea Chocolate Cafe
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/tablea-chocolate-cafe/

Marti Chocolatt
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/marti-chocolatt/

So what this blog is all about?

A Filipino blog about his search for the divine chocolate. It will deal with the history, culture and tradition of chocolate in the Philippines. It features stories on chocolate, recipes, chocolatier, etc. Also, highlights anything and everything chocolate.

I came to know about this site - http://www.thechocolatelife.com they have some basic questions which I answered like this:

Most memorable chocolate experience: sensual, orgasmic and bliss...

My favorite chocolate is: I am still searching for that divine chocolate... I believe I will create it myself...

So, I am dreaming of becoming a chocolatier in the near future, yummy-licious....

So Mabuhay and welcome to this pinoy chocophile's blog...

- - -- -

updated 7 April 2012

CHOCOPHILE
by The Chocolate Dictionary
http://thechocolatedictionary.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/chocophile/

Someone with a great love for, or an inordinate attraction to, chocolates. Chocophiles dont just buy chocolates, they worship them at the altars of Theobroma; they dont just unwrap chocolates, they undress them; they dont just eat chocolates, they have passionate encounters with them; and they dont just digest chocolates, they allow them to metamorphose irrevocably into poetry.

That chocolate is complex and mysterious is well known to chocophiles, and yet the substance is so simple it can be enjoyed plain. That is, if ever there is such thing as plain chocolate its expressive potential is perhaps too great to fit into a simple classification. In categories that include the auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile, thermal, and gustatory, the sheer variety of sensory stimuli means that in terms of sophistication chocolate can easily be compared with fine wine.

Its soft textures can be smooth, silky, velvety or moussey, yet it can also be brittle, and the characteristic snap as it breaks on the fingers or teeth is one of the great pleasures of eating chocolate. It can be cooked and it can be frozen. It can be chewed, it can be drunk and it can be licked. It likes to be combined with other flavours, being noticeably more partial to some than others, yet it releases its own rainbow of impressions, memories and sensations as it melts slowly on the palate.

Chocolate can be made into desserts as well as main courses. It can be spread, piped, shaped, molded, sculpted, painted with, printed onto, and even worn as clothing. But most of all it enjoyed as confectionery. From highly sweetened milk chocolate, to filled bonbons such as truffles, ganaches, crmes and pralines, to premier cru, single-estate, high cocoa content bars, the formulations in which chocolate confectionery are found seem limited only by the creativity of the makers.

Although chocolate is appreciated all over the world much of its profile is still mysterious and unknown. Indeed, it is said that chocolate is Mother Natures best kept secret. So numerous are its properties that despite decades of research food chemists are still unable to synthesize it. The appeal of chocolate crosses national, cultural and age barriers, yet its roots are deeply South American, where it has long been used in medicine and ritual. So versatile are the healing properties of chocolate that it is now used in therapy, recreation and massage.

For many consumers, chocolate is such stuff as dreams are made of. It is such stuff as ecstasy and perfection. It is a Holy Grail. It is a weaver of fantasies. The more one gets to know chocolate the more one realises it has its own character and personality: it talks and it listens; it comforts and it calms; it lifts spirits and it boosts energy levels; it brings joy and it stimulates desire.

That chocolate is so open to interpretation is a quality fully exploited by manufacturers and advertisers, especially in their adoption of the so-called Milk Tray Approach. Some say chocolate is feminine: that it is an Aphrodite, a Cleopatra, a Juliet or a Josephine Baker. Others say that it is masculine: that it is a Mark Antony, a Romeo, a Casanova or a Byron. Chocolate is neither and yet it is both. Because of its versatile, contradictory nature we think of it as human, and some are even apt to fall in love with it, but as the botanical name for the cocoa tree means food of the gods, perhaps it is divine.

Robert Linxe, founder of La Maison du Chocolat and magician of the ganache recognizes this perhaps more than anyone. He has defined over two hundred sensory impressions one can derive from chocolate, yet admits the real total is probably much more. For Linxe, chocolate is more than just confectionery it is a complete sensory entity. Professor Chantal Favre-Bismut, a Nutritionist at the University of Paris, went further, describing chocolate as one of the most delicious and noble factors of our whole existence. Few, if any, chocophiles would disagree.

Original link source - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2012/04/pinoy-chocophile.html#.UCJ79PbiapE

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