When chocoholics unite
The Oxford Dictionary defines a chocoholic as a person who is very fond of chocolate. That’s putting it rather mildly, coming from a certified chocoholic like me. But I have an all-time favorite chocolate book titled Chocolate: The Consuming Passion where the author, Sarah Boynton, compares a chocoholic’s “I like chocolate” to “I like to breathe.” That’s more like it!
Happily, for chocolate lovers here and around the globe, we have the fertile, volcanic-enriched soils and mountain slopes that produce cacao beans of exceptional quality. In addition, we have the master chocolatiers who take this great produce to come up with globally award-winning chocolate creations. Then, we have retailers like SM who are proud to showcase the best of the Philippines.
Auro, a Pinoy tree-to-bar company founded by Mark Ocampo and Kelly Go, is one of the pioneers who took what they learned from their studies abroad to produce chocolate that ranks right up there with the world’s best. The high quality, silky chocolate is further enhanced by the infusion of Pinoy flavors like ube, coconut, banana, and taro. The packaging is colorful and attractive, making Auro a staple pasalubong item that you find in specialty local stores like Kultura.
This year marked the sixth edition of S Maison x Auro World Chocolate Fair, held July 3 to 6 at the S Maison Main Atrium, just in time to commemorate World Chocolate Day which falls on July 7. In keeping with the Auro founder’s playful spirit, this year’s theme was “Aliens vs Dinosaurs.” Apart from the kid-friendly, theme park-like atmosphere where pastel dinosaurs and giant eggs were juxtaposed with cosmic elements, the goal was to reflect what was currently in cinemas (the latest Jurassic Park installment) and current news (UFO sightings worldwide).
I did mention above that I’m a true chocoholic through and through, but did I tell you that the opening of the S Maison x Auro World Chocolate Fair fell on my birthday? What a treat! It was like sending a kid to Disneyland, a fashionista to Paris fashion week or a diehard to the Laderach chocolate headquarters in Ennenda, Switzerland. To top it all, when I arrived at S Maison, I was given a chocolate “passport” to be stamped at each of the participating booths which would then hand out a generous sample of their Auro-infused wares.
How giddy were we? The brief but interesting welcome remarks by SM Supermall senior assistant vice president for mall operations Perkin O. So, Auro’s Mark Ocampo and Kelly Go plus our very own celebrity chef Nouel Catis were followed by a simple ribboncutting, and then off we went from booth to booth to collect our loot. Not to mention there were yummy pastries, canapes and lovely Black Forest iced teas from French patisserie Lazartin being passed around.
Our first stop was the colorful booths of Auro Café, where we were handed the highly anticipated and coveted Auro x SNA’AP bars, a happy collaboration between chef Nouel Catis of Dubai chocolate fame and Auro. We learned that chef Nouel and Auro go back a long way, to Auro’s beginnings. The mutual respect and support that the chef and Auro have for each other translates into the famous Dubai Chocolate with pistachio and kunafa pastry. The very packaging, in pistachio green, proudly announces that chef Nouel is the original chef behind the recipe. And rightly so!
SM Engineering and Design president Hans Sy Jr. said: “At SM, we’re always pleased to host local Filipino brands and trends, and this Dubai Chocolate trend has definitely taken the world by storm. We’re so pleased that Aura has decided to partner with the original creator, and bring the Dubai chocolate back home for our community to enjoy in its accurate and real form. We congratulate Auro and chef Nouel, and we look forward to all our customers enjoying this new product.”
The Auro Café booth had much to offer in addition to its popular gift sets; they also carried adorable tub cakes! Imagine an Ooey Gooey Chocolatey “Caramely” Tub Cake with a soft caramel layer, chocolate ganache, chocolate mousse covered with chocolate shavings. Or a “creamylicious crispylicious” Turon Tub Cake with banana walnut bread, jackfruit “langka” banana caramel, milk chocolate caramel ganache, mascarpone Chantilly, white chocolate shavings, chopped walnuts and filo crisps. And there will surely be no leftovers with the Walang Tirang Tiramisu Tub Cake, not when it has homemade mascarpone cream, broas ladyfingers, espresso syrup, coffee cream, and dark chocolate shavings.
The next booth we stopped by, Bubu, offered 100% vegan ice cream bars hand-dipped in Auro’s luscious chocolate.Chocoholic ice cream fanatics will love the Bubu Bar flavors. I chose Fancy Pants Roasted strawberry ice cream, dipped in 77% Auro dark chocolate and topped with freeze-dried strawberries. My kids both picked You Little Monkey with roasted banana ice cream, because they had never tasted such a flavor before. It was all delicious!
That’s not all. Daniel Baker, based in White Plains, Quezon City, is known for using premium Auro chocolate and participating in the World Chocolate Fair with their own top-of-the-line creations that include Auro Crisps, Fudge Brownies, Double Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Dipped Loaf Bread with Pistachio Crumbs and Auro coated potato chips. I chose the chocolate dipped loaf bread with pistachio crumbs, thankful it didn’t need to be consumed on the spot like the ice creams and the drinks.
If all this is sounding too rich, there is an option to go mindful yet still indulgent with goodies that are vegan, sugar-free and gluten-free. Can they still taste good, you wonder? They can if they are made by Mindful Indulgence and include Peanut Butter Cups with blanc vegan white chocolate with black truffle sea salt, almonds and homemade all-natural peanut butter. There is a milk chocolate version and a vegan matcha version. All come in boxes of six.
All in all, there were 10 partners who participated in the Auro World Chocolate Fair. Apart from those already mentioned, Conrad Manila went full Cretaceous with a lineup of sweet Auro creations like chocolate egg dinosaur cookies, chocolate dinosaur lollipops, dinosaur cupcakes and donuts; croissants, cheese bread and Biscoff cheesecake. Serenitea’s Cacao Lover line included ice cream in flavors like Auro Cacao Cookies n Cream, Trio Choco, Cookie Supreme, and Auro Cacao Frost. I enjoyed the custardy Cookie Supreme!
In the midst of this chocolate madness is Japanese-inspired bakery Meru, whose quieter offerings included a very delicious custard, chocolate cream puffs, and scrambol cream puffs. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity because the cream puffs were downright delicious, and young owner Arianna Kaw handed them out herself.
Half Saints, a female-owned bakery and café from Quezon City known for their baked goods and comforting mains, conjured up limited-edition treats like Lava French Toast and Caramelized French Toast. These were filled with 77% Auro dark chocolate ganache, topped with fermented orange, mixed nuts and whipped cream. The Triple Chocolate Fudge Brownies has three intensities of Auro chocolate with dried cranberries, roasted almonds, and cocoa nibs.
Craving oversized cookies? Chunky Cookie meteors from Ciento will take you to the Cookieverse with Auro Brookie, Chocolate Chip Crookie, Biscoff Crookie, and Cienthin Cups. The full All-Auro lineup, which spans the cookie galaxy, has Birthday Bash, Midnight Cheesecake, S’mores Campfire, Pistachio 2 Ways, Red Velvet Cream Cheese, Biscoffee, and Classic Chocolate Chip.
Other fun events scheduled during the fair included a meet-and-greet with chef Nouel, a drag show to celebrate the tie-up between and Auro, plus a costume contest. The Best Dressed Costume Explorer was to receive even more chocolate goodies. I was severely tempted to return on another day dressed in a fashionista’s take on Dubai Chocolate: a pistachio green inner blouse and skirt, a fluffy beige layer on top to symbolize the kunafa pastry and finally, over everything, a chocolate brown coat.
But already laden with so many chocolate giveaways and purchases, I decided to pass on that chance to others. After all, there’s always the S Maison x Auro World Chocolate Fair next year.
