Our very own co-Founder was part of the group that represented the country. Here are the highlights that open more avenues and recognition to the Criollo Cacao Variety.

The Consulate General of the Philippines invites kababayan to “Chocolate Bliss: A Criollo Affair”—featuring award-winning Filipino cacao farmer Christopher Fadriga who will talk about the criollo cacao that is much sought after by chocolatiers around the world. Chris will also give a taste of his sikwate and chocolates to attendees. The event will be held at the Kalayaan Hall on Friday, 4 October 2023 at 6:30 p.m. #BagongPilipinas #TaasNooFilipino

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Many thanks to Ramon Uy, Sr. for a brilliant article.

A Tale of Two golds

This is a story of contrasts. Of how similar events can generate vastly different responses from the public at large and equally different outcomes for the players.

Carlos Yulo won 2 gold medals in the recent Olympic in Paris in 2024. This bought attention, honor and received well-deserved recognition from the City of Manila, Congress, Senate, Multi-National Corporations and even the Office of the President along with material awards.

Meanwhile Christopher Fadriga also won a gold medal in Paris in 2021 in the
International Competition on Cacao beans, his entry Criollo Cacao entry, a rare and almost extinct variety, which was brought to the Philippines during the Galleon Trade between Mexico and Philippines. He was largely unnoticed in his own country but got the recognition his achievement deserved by the international community, offers of
employment, visitors from Japan and Europe and invitations to share his expertise.

Both individuals possessed a passion in their areas of interest, worked hard and
with discipline, overcame obstacles to climb to the top of their fields.

Prior to his winning Carlos’s talent was largely unnoticed and he had to train in
Japan for seven years with a Japanese coach motivated only by a burning desire to succeed and reach the top of his field. Similarly, Chris was also discovered by the Japanese who
personally visited him and supported him. Both would have gone unnoticed if not for this outside intervention.

Chris, also motivated by a burning desire to succeed diligently researched and experimented with the Criollo variety of cacao to become a world authority in the field. This variety of cacao is what the Aztec offers to their gods, which means that they offer the best variety. Upon further research Chris Fadriga discovered and verified by sophisticated testing methods that we still have remnants of the original strain here in Philippines, which we aptly called native and nature in its wisdom had preserved unchanged for us over the centuries.

Both these winners participated in regional competitions, moved on the national level and finally reached the international stage.

This raises an interesting question of our nation’s psyche. Why the difference of response? Sponsorships, money, condos, name and fame for one and a footnote on the last page for the other. Why could foreigners see what we could not see and have the opposite response to these two events.

As I write this, Chris is in Turin, Italy presenting his discovery and the possibilities it holds, with a lot of people trying his chocolate creations.

This is in no way to diminish the achievements of Carlos but an opportunity to reexamine our response as a nation and underlying value system. It is time for us to wake up, circle the wagons and protect yet
another national treasure from being hijacked by outsiders. It is time to be proud and think big. We were the only nation outside the amazon basin to be blessed with this brown gold and our priority should be in preserving and strengthening our presence on the world cacao map.

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An honor to be part of this wonderful article, Consulate General Erwin Cato!

It was at the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2024 here in Turin on Thursday where we got ourselves introduced to slow food—regional cuisine prepared the traditional way as opposed to fast food that has become a way of life to most if not all of us.

It was also here at Terra Madre that we got introduced not to Italian slow food but to that from other parts of the Philippines that our Kapampangan palates are not familiar with—we are talking about Negrense cuisine other than chicken inasal prepared by chefs from Bacolod City and Negros Occidental who are representing the Philippines in the four-day event.

Thank you to our friends from the Slow Food Community of Negros and the Slow Food Chef Alliance not only for giving us a taste today of kansi, KBL (kadyos, baboy, at langka), kinilaw, adobong manok sa dilaw, apan-apan, and gourmet tuyo with kesong puti but more importantly, for putting the Philippines in the global slow food map.

It was at the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2024 here in Turin on Thursday where we got ourselves introduced to slow food—regional cuisine prepared the traditional way as opposed to fast food that has become a way of life to most if not all of us.