FOR Raquel Choa, chocolate is in her blood, probably literally.
She remembers her grandmother preparing sikwate (Cebuano for “chocolate”) at dawn every morning before going to school. “My nanay believed that if we drink one cup of sikwate before going to school, it will sustain us and keep us from getting hungry because we had to cross seven rivers just to get to school.”
From humble beginnings in the isolated town of Hingatmonan, in the municipality of Balamban, Raquel was reared on the legend of Maria Cacao—a diwata (a fairy or goddess) who owned all the cacao plants in the forest and harvested them every year. When it flooded in their area, Raquel was told that Maria Cacao had traveled down the river by the house of her grandmother.
Like many other residents in her village, Raquel’s family lived on making tablea (unsweetened chocolate tablets)—picking the cacao pods, roasting the beans, pounding and grinding them until they ooze their chocolatey goodness. “But you know, I didn’t know then that cacao was actually chocolate!” she confesses, laughing today. “When I realized that they were one and the same, I felt like I had discovered a hidden treasure!”
Raquel stresses that she is not a pastry chef nor a chocolatier, who studies for years to perfect the craft of making chocolate confections. “I’m a mother of eight and I am a tablea maker,” she says firmly. Without any connections at all, she bravely marketed and sold her tablea to hotels but realized this would only be used once a year, during Christmas. So “I got challenged to do more!” She then started offering a chocolate buffet at the Choa residence in Mabolo. It has become a tourist attraction in Cebu, and dubbed The Chocolate House, where all sorts of dishes, confectionary, and other items are made from chocolate.
From there, she and her husband Alfred dove deeper into the business and started making chocolate confections under the brand Ralfe’s Gourmet. They make truffles, alfajores and pralines, while continuing to sell tableas. The family has since moved to another house, but their old home is totally devoted to sweet treats and the making of chocolate.
Racquel cannot explain how she is able to come up with the different tableas for her hotel clients, nor her confectionary for her A-list customers. “When I’m inspired by the person I talk to and they tell me their requirements, I start to imagine things. I guess it’s an artistic process; so maybe I’ll just use 25-percent sugar for this concoction, add something, etc. I think it’s also based on my mood.” She also makes chocolate confections as giveaways for weddings, special parties, celebrities and TV shows.
She has received support from the Department of Agriculture, which initially bought her products and then provided cacao seedlings to her and neighboring farms. She also credits the Department of Trade and Industry, which helped teach her in further honing her business skills.
First dependent on her family’s own cacao trees, she now buys from neighboring farmers as demand for her high-quality chocolates have increased. She says a number of “rich folk” who have idle lands have also approached her, offering these to be planted to cacao, after hearing her talk about her dreams for the Philippine chocolate industry.
Even as she has received about 10 to 15 inquiries for franchises both from local and foreign individuals who want to sell her products, she is not rushing to expand her network just yet. Raquel says she has finalized just one deal with a buyer in Malacca, the historic city of Malaysia. She says that since Malacca is an old city, her store would also have some historical and cultural pegs surrounding the legend of Maria Cacao.
A Chocolate Chamber kiosk will also be set up at Manila Polo Club—one of her loyal tablea clients—where she can sell her confectionary. “I’d like to try out this market first before I decide whether or not to expand outside it.”
“My dream now is, I want to create a chocolate that is authentic Filipino in taste. Hindi tayo hahabol sa Belgian chocolates. I noticed that many Filipino chocolate makers now [try to duplicate the taste of foreign chocolates]. What I want is to create or maintain that distinct chocolate taste, so that when foreigners taste it, they know that it’s made in the Philippines. Gusto ko ’pag ipikit nila ang mata nila, malalaman nila na this is the Philippine chocolate.”
She is quite happy that her little tablea business has expanded to a more profitable enterprise. But what is she is most thankful for is that her children have also become passionate about their products, to the point of going to Singapore to study confectionary. “I’m so happy my children are already part of it. Like my two sons have already studied chocolate, and my daughter is here [helping sell the products]. They fell in love with it. I can see that the business is now sustainable because I can see their love and passion in chocolates as well.”
Like before, chocolates continue to sweeten the ties in Raquel’s family.