I used to be having dinner final August 1, 2022 with an organization colleague from Barcelona who was about to fly again residence the next day. In the middle of our dinner conversations, he talked about that he purchased a number of bars of 85% Darkish Malagos Chocolate® to convey residence to his spouse again in Spain. He says that it is among the finest sweets they’ve tried anyplace on the planet. They grew to become conversant in the model throughout their project right here within the Philippines for our firm and ever since their return to Spain, they’ve been craving to have a superb chocolate deal with as soon as once more with this model.
I’m conversant in Malagos Candies® from Davao and have really tried a few of the model’s sweets when our household visited Davao for a brief trip again in 2013. However my colleague’s sharing received me intrigued about this model as soon as once more.
Due to this fact, throughout a current journey to Davao Metropolis, my spouse and I made a decision to re-acquaint ourselves with this model. Coincidentally, after we landed in Davao final August 15, it turned out to be the primary day of the weeklong Kadawayan Competition for 2022. It’s an annual competition held in Davao Metropolis which is a celebration of life, a thanksgiving for nature’s items, the riches of tradition, the bounty of the harvest, and the serenity of dwelling. It’s a gathering for seven days of music, dance, and feast in Davao’s streets, with a number of occasions happening all through the week which highlights the eleven tribes of Davao Metropolis. That additionally meant that the locally-produced chocolate manufacturers, together with Malagos Chocolate®, could be showcased across the metropolis. True sufficient, proper on the check-in counter of the resort the place we stayed in, Malagos Chocolate® bars have been entrance and middle! And after we tasted once more its 85% chocolate bar variant, we instantly realized why my colleague was raving about it. It was certainly true superb chocolate which is now counted as the most effective on the planet.
So after we have been brainstorming for my subsequent Filipino model to jot down about right here in Branding Nerd, I used to be satisfied that Malagos Chocolate® ought to be this weblog’s subsequent characteristic.
A Historical past of High quality Farming
Based not too way back in 2003 by farmers Roberto and Charita Puentespina, Malagos cacao rising and chocolate manufacturing was not the primary agricultural enterprise of the couple. Amongst different issues, they have been already established as one of many largest cut-flower producers within the nation. Within the late eighties and thru the nineties, Charita’s orchid laboratory took up the reason for saving the waling-waling, and she or he trail-blazed in rising temperate minimize flowers within the Philippines. Her preliminary efforts within the early ‘90’s has catapulted Puentespina Orchids & Tropical Vegetation, Inc. to the place it’s at the moment, one of many pillars within the cutflower and cutfoliage trade within the Philippines with over 300,000 dozens of varied cutflowers and cutfoliage harvested yearly.
As said of their web site: “Charita’s love affair with cacao started in 2003 after we leased a farm in Malagos, Baguio District, Davao Metropolis. The farm had current cacao bushes.
Her dream for this new enterprise was to revitalize the cacao sector which had crashed within the 1980’s. She additionally needed to make her very personal premium Philippine chocolate as an alternative of simply exporting the cacao beans to institutional accounts.
She’d at all times say, “We have to step up. We should put extra worth to our uncooked materials. This manner we might make use of and empower extra individuals, particularly the farmers.” This was the start of our unbelievable journey in making chocolate.”
It was this early imaginative and prescient of premium Philippine chocolate that galvanized the founder to create the form of world-class model that Malagos Chocolate® is at the moment.
What Makes the Malagos Chocolate® Model Distinctive
Within the first module of the course “The Model Structure | What it Takes to Construct and Maintain a Model that Lasts”, I normally spend a very good period of time educating my college students in regards to the idea of discovering the “Open Gap” out there which is a vital stage in creating a model. It’s that house in a market section which represents the vital concerns or attributes of the customers, however there are not any current manufacturers that occupy that house. As soon as a enterprise proprietor finds that open gap and positions its model there, it’s robotically assured of being distinctive as a model.
Uniqueness is a prerequisite for any model, that’s the reason within the model structure framework, the USP or distinctive promoting proposition of a model performs a major function within the technique stage (essentially the most vital stage) of any model.
Within the case of Malagos Chocolate®, the model’s battlecry, which is “Tree to Bar“, already provides us a touch of what makes this model distinctive.
I want to spotlight two such reasons-to-believe (or RTBs) which makes this model distinctive.
First, they develop and harvest their very own distinctive and premium cocoa bushes;
And second, the manufacturing of their chocolate bars, which follows a rigorous 14-step absolutely built-in course of, is definitely achieved in the very same farm the place their cocoa bushes are grown and harvested. Therefore, their battlecry, Tree to Bar.
A majority of the world’s main and well-known chocolate manufacturers really don’t possess these two distinctive options of Malagos Chocolate®.
Premium Cocoa Timber
The primary level of uniqueness of the model is its use of cocoa beans from premium cocoa bushes.
In the middle of scripting this weblog, I’ve found, that in the whole world, there are 4 predominant kinds of the cocoa plant, particularly forastero, criollo, trinitario, and nacional.
Forastero selection nonetheless dominates in world chocolate manufacturing. It’s the most generally used, comprising 80–90% of the world manufacturing of cocoa. The excessive yielding vegetation of forastero made it a simple selection for growers, who changed the criollo crop with the low high quality forastero because of this. Forastero is primarily cultivated in West Africa and is called “bulk cocoa”.
Criollo selection are rarer and regarded a delicacy. Criollo additionally tends to be much less proof against a number of ailments that assault the cocoa plant, therefore only a few international locations nonetheless produce it, estimated at lower than 1 to five% of the whole crop manufacturing on the planet. Partly as a result of rarity, and undoubtedly as a result of its distinctive, advanced taste, criollo beans are thought to be tremendous superb cocoa and plenty of heirloom varieties are wanted by craft chocolate makers. One of many largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela
Trinitario beans whereas not as uncommon as criollo nonetheless solely make up lower than 10% of the whole cacao manufacturing. Trinitario (from Trinidad) is a hybrid between Criollo and Forastero varieties. It’s thought-about to be of a lot increased high quality than Forastero, has increased yields, and is extra proof against illness than Criollo. The Trinitario being the least pure has a variety of tastes and profiles of another selection. The assorted ratios of criollo to forastero, and terroir enormously affect the advanced flavors discovered on this bean.
Nacional, the fourth selection, is the least identified cacao. This bean selection (considered extinct) was solely just lately rediscovered in Peru in 2011. In its purest type, it’s thought to be the world’s rarest cacao. Candies made with nacional beans are wealthy, creamy, and with little bitterness.
Most cocoa beans on the planet are already hybrids as a result of pure cross-pollination of varied varieties of cocoa bushes as they evolve by way of the years. Due to this fact, pure, thoroughbred cocoa bushes are fairly very uncommon nowadays.
Malagos Chocolate® is produced from Trinatorio cocoa beans that are grown and harvested in their very own Puentespina Farm in Davao.
The precise genetic make-up of Malagos cocoa beans reveals some traces of the uncommon Criollo and Nacional varieties making its high quality a lot increased than the widespread sweets produced from primarily Forastero cocoa. Though, the dominant sort present in Malagos cocoa is Amelonado which is an evolutionary sort of bean from the Forastero selection.
Heirloom Cacao Designation
In 2019, the model achieved a vital milestone when Puentespina Farm was designated as Heirloom producers of high quality & taste cacao beans at origin by the California-based Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund which was based in 2012 in partnership with the Superb Chocolate Business Affiliation (FCIA) & US Dept of Agriculture (USDA). Puentespina Farm is barely the sixteenth on the planet to be awarded such a designation, and the one one within the Philippines. It’s a really prestigious and highly-coveted designation on the planet of cocoa.
In line with Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund: “Heirloom cacao beans are the diamonds of the cacao tree, producing the best taste. They’re endowed with a mix of historic, cultural, botanical, geographical and taste worth that’s the basis of the most effective tasting chocolate.”
“We’re elated to be a part of this very small group of farmers who’ve been given this designation as Heirloom Cacao. We’re solely the sixteenth to be given this honor, and the primary within the Philippines.”
Charita Puentespina, Farmer and Founding father of Puentespina Farms & Malagos Chocolate
This worldwide designation and recognition uniquely positions Malagos Chocolate® amongst superb and premium sweets out there since it’s a single-origin model which sources its cocoa beans straight from this heirloom cacao farm.
Tree-to-Farm Course of
The second reason-to-believe (or RTB) that helps the model’s distinctive place as a premium chocolate model is its outstanding 14-step tree-to-farm course of which is carried out in its entirety throughout the Puentespina Farm the place their Trinitario beans are additionally grown and harvested.
As I discussed earlier, many mass-produced and well-known international chocolate manufacturers shouldn’t have these similar two distinctive options as Malagos Chocolate®.
Malagos Chocolate® is just one of about 100 Tree to Farm producers of chocolate on the planet which considerably accounts for the distinctive and superb taste of the model.
The usage of premium cocoa beans in chocolate-making is definitely not a assure of manufacturing high-quality premium chocolate. The rigorous course of has a fabric impact on the ultimate high quality of the chocolate. The most effective cocoa beans on the planet might nonetheless yield a low-quality bar of darkish chocolate if the beans are poorly fermented, over-roasted, or adversely effected by any variety of different manufacturing variables.
For instance, in step quantity 5 which is fermenting, if the employees aren’t diligent in turning the uncooked beans throughout the 5-6 days of fermentation, the resultant high quality of the beans could possibly be both over or underneath fermented which results in low high quality chocolate. Within the case of Malagos Chocolate®, since this step is a part of the their in-house course of, they’re able to management the final word high quality of the cocoa beans by way of a well-monitored and carried out fermenting course of.
Throughout harvest from cocoa bushes, which is step quantity 4, some farmers around the globe are identified to reap even earlier than the cocoa fruit has correctly ripened due to their restricted alternative to do the harvest. This widespread apply additionally results in undermined high quality of the cocoa beans ultimately. Within the case of Malagos Chocolate®, because the farm is fully-integrated into the method, harvesting is barely achieved on the optimum time when the fruits are ripe of the choosing.
As Rex Puentespina (son of founder Charita) stated: “Nice sweets are made are made by way of the efforts of many individuals.”Given the labor-intensive course of that premium high quality cocoa beans undergo, having all steps of the method housed in a single place gives a definite aggressive benefit for Malagos Chocolate® in making certain the consistency high-quality of the cocoa beans which are lastly used within the sweets.
As of this writing, the model has already amassed a complete of fifty six worldwide awards together with having the Puentespina Cocoa Farm now being acknowledged as one of many producers of the Greatest 50 Beans within the World. A complete of 166 cacao beans samples have been acquired from 40 international locations on the 2017 Version of the Cocoa Excellence Programme in France. The continuing success of this model has really positioned Davao and the Philippines on the planet map of superb cocoa and premium chocolate.
This good model leaves us with these two beneficial classes in model technique:
First, the model positioning of Malagos Chocolate® (which is correctly expressed by its battlecry of Tree to Bar) permits the model to stay laser-focused on all points of the model’s operations, from sowing, rising, harvesting, processing, and manufacturing. It’s evident in all of the initiatives of the model by way of the years that they’ve clearly been very centered in constructing this positioning which has inevitably been acknowledged by the worldwide neighborhood.
And second, course of technique is at all times a compelling supply of aggressive benefit for manufacturers. That is typically one thing that’s not supplied sufficient consideration and care by model house owners, but when correctly centered on, course of technique can really be an everlasting and highly effective method of constructing the fairness of a model. Within the case of Malagos Chocolate®, its slogan of Tree to Bar has really positioned course of on the coronary heart of its model positioning.
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