'Happiness You Can Eat'

DAVAO CITY—There’s no better road to Philippine glory, at least in making the global royalty food—chocolate, that is—than to start it all on the farm.

This is the gem held dear by the caretaker-owner of the Malagos cacao farm, just at the back of the equally world-famous Malagos Gardens of cut flowers and orchids.

Chocolate-maker Rex Victor P. Puentespina pointed to good farm practice and crop care as key to excellent cacao beans quality for fine chocolate products. “However good a chef, or chocolate maker…one cannot produce an excellent chocolate if the raw material itself is the problem.”

Global chocolate experts emphasized this to the exhibit team from the Malagos Agri-Ventures Corp., when they were surprised at the “very good and fruity flavor” of Philippine-made Malagos chocolates at the international trade fair in Berlin, Germany, in 2015.

Puentespina said the chocolate connoisseurs in Europe were awed by the taste of the Malagos chocolates, the first of any Philippine chocolates in any global trade fair, and remarked that these have a lot of potential in the world market.