Do you like chocolate? I'm far more savoury in my tastes - and I think I probably choose cheese over chocolate on most occasions. However, after a chat with one of our lovely customers, Charlotte a few weeks ago about the amazing small businesses that are emerging in the Philippines I really wanted to find out some more and also support this superb fledgling industry. I do love a gamble, I can't help but take a chance on something that sounds interesting and anyway, long story short, we have just received our first delivery of rather incredible bean to bar chocolate in store.
All the ingredients are grown in and made on site and locally at the rather wonderfully named Theo & Philo Chocolate Factory in the Philipines, (Theo & Philo translates roughly to "Chocolate and Love") Now, before you say - oh, I didn't know they grew Cacao in the Philippines - they do, cacao trees can only grow within 20 degrees of the equator and they grow far more successfully than those two other rather famous chocolate making nations - Switzerland and Belgium! In fact the Philipines make some of the most incredible chocolate i have ever tried in my life!
The flavours are rich and sumptuous and I really mean it when i say its the smoothest and silkiest chocolate I've ever had. However, what really sets this chocolate apart for me, is the expert flavour combinations - Try the "Adobo" it is a soy sauce, toffee and black pepper flavour chocolate bar and my mouth is watering just remembering it. The first taste you get the toffee matched perfectly with a slightly salty deep soy sauce and then just slowly you can feel and taste the black pepper, leaving a warm and thoroughly satisfying and rather pleasant heat and taste in the mouth. Other flavours and i haven't tried them all yet are as follows: dark chocolate and black sesame, milk chocolate with pili nut and pinipig, milk chocolate turon, milk chocolate with barako coffee, dark chocolate with green mango and salt, dark chocolate with labuyo chili and dark chocolate with ginger and mint.
Don't they sound amazing? They are, and they are all £4.25.
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Do you still sell the Theo and Philo range? Desperately seeking these products….