Cebuana ‘balikbayan’ supports cacao farmers through tablea cafe

Posted at 8:03 pm January 02, 2012

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By Nikka Garriga

MANDAUE CITY, CEBU – Aya Garcia-Shlachter has always been proud of her roots even after establishing a successful career as an architect based in New York.

So much so that when her father presented an idea to put up a business in their hometown, she decided to come home along with her husband Larry and their kids.

“We thought about putting up a café similar to Starbucks but has a Pinoy vibe to it. And the products must of course be all locally made,” Aya says.

This gave way to the Tablea Chocolate Café, which offers drinks like the traditional tsokolate (hot chocolate) and pastries made from pure, sun-dried cacao beans.

“We use as much local ingredients as we can and present them in an up-scale manner that highlights the world class quality of our cacaos,” adds Aya.

Much of the tableas used in their cafe are grown in various parts of the country including those from Cebu, Davao, Bohol and Negros, which help provide livelihood for local communities in these provinces.

Tablea products include “nibblers” like chocolate-covered cacao beans, white chocolate bark and mallow clusters.

Besides Philippine-made cacao, the Tablea Chocolate Café also uses a molinillo, the Mexican version of the batirol made for mixing the tableas. These wooden whisks are carved by artisans based in Dumanlog, a local community here.

Eighteen months after it was launched, Tablea now has six branches and is continuing to expand in major malls across Cebu.

“We want to re-introduce the Pinoy tradition of tsokolate especially among the youth as well as help small-scale cacao farmers,” says Aya.

Get more information on Tablea Chocolate Café