A Chocolate Connection Found in the Philippines

By Bob Brady, 26-time traveler from Braintree, MA

O.A.T.’s Discover Thailand trip provided a surprising and moving moment for me during the post-trip exploration of Cebu in the Philippines. I’d already enjoyed many diverse and wonderful experiences on the Malaysia & Singapore pre-trip extension and throughout O.A.T.’s extensive main trek Thailand itinerary. My selection of the post-trip tour not only was chosen to immerse myself in the history and culture of another exotic Southeast Asian locale but also to visit a place where my father once passed through as part of his World War II Pacific Theater military service.

On a number of past O.A.T. trips, I have “walked in the footsteps” of my maternal and paternal ancestors in Italy and Ireland, respectively, and of my dad’s wartime passages to ports of call in occupied Japan. During my stay on O.A.T.’s Turkey’s Magical Hideaways, I’d even revisited some of the sites that I originally encountered during my own military service there 56 years earlier. When I signed up for the Cebu extension, I hoped that it would include an opportunity to find places where my father might have once ventured.

The island of Cebu is a Philippines province with Cebu City as its capital. The city, known as the “Queen City of the South,” is the country’s oldest municipality, with a history dating back to a 16th-century Spanish colonial past. Among its many notable landmarks there is Magellan’s Cross. The cross is housed in an octagonal gazebo located in the square where Portuguese-born navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan, leading a Spanish expedition, erected a wooden cross on March 15, 1521. The event marked the beginnings of Christianity in the Philippines. Inside the revered religious edifice were an abundance of candles placed there as offerings by those seeking personal blessings. The structure’s image has been incorporated into Cebu City’s official seal.

Magellan was killed on April 27, 1521, during an encounter with native Lapu-Lapu warriors and the remainder of the first circumnavigation of the globe was completed by his crew without their leader. We visited that spot, viewing a historical marker of the battle and a 20-foot bronze monument in the image of the native leader who repelled the foreign invaders.

As on other O.A.T. trips, the trip experience leader was a great help in aiding in my personal quests. Our leader took me to the harbor where dad’s ship once docked and identified sites where he likely had traversed. I photographed those spots to preserve a part of our family’s history to be shared with current and future generations.

Towards the end of our group’s time in Cebu, we headed towards a large and vibrant mall in the city. Unlike back home where some such facilities have fallen into decline, Philippines shopping centers are robust and serve as popular community gathering places. These large multi-tiered buildings house popular stores, food courts, and public spaces where a variety of activities take place. In a courtyard surrounded by spectators, the national martial art of Arnis was on display as young women engaged in an exhibition match of stick fighting.

On the day before departure for home, we had a scheduled itinerary stop at the Chocolate Chamber, located on the ground level of the city’s Robinsons Galleria. There we met Raquel Toquero-Choa, the Chamber’s founder and president of the artisanal chocolate company. Her operation includes a cocoa plantation, a factory and retail outlets. Raquel developed her skills and passion as a chocolatier from her grandmother. This would prove to be not just a time to enjoy a variety of delicious candy samples as in other past O.A.T. travels but a true learning and discovery experience for me and, unexpectedly, for our hostess.

Using an ancestral process, Raquel provided the group with a step-by-step, “hands on” demonstration of taking roasted cacao beans and grinding them into a paste to make Tablea (traditional Filipino circular cakes) to then be used to brew us Tsokolate, a thick, rich hot chocolate beverage. As we enjoyed the finished product, a sense of déjà vu overcame me. The activities, aromas, and tastes hastened a recall of my childhood. After the demonstration, I made mention to Raquel of that sensation. I explained that my trip to Cebu was a special one as my dad had been here shortly after her country’s liberation from their wartime Japanese occupiers. I had had the opportunity to view places where he’d once walked. However, I had not anticipated the rush of memories that the visit to the Chocolate Chamber had generated.

I told Raquel that upon my dad’s honorable discharge from World War II military service, he returned home to a job at the Walter Baker Chocolate Company in the Dorchester Lower Mills neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts and proceeded to share its history with her. The Baker Company traced its beginnings to 1765 and was formally established in 1780. It operated a mill powered by the Neponset River, a waterway named after the Native Americans who first inhabited the area. The company was the county’s first manufacturer of chocolate. My father would work there for many years. We lived nearby and often would experience a grand chocolatey smell in the air when the beans taken from large storage silos were being roasted. While the company exited the site in 1965, much of the landmark administration building and plant still exist today, having been transformed into luxury condominiums.

Raquel’s presentation brought back my fond recollection of the company’s family friendly events over the years where I was introduced to the many facets of chocolate production as well as enjoying an abundance of free samples. In addition, Baker & Company had registered as a trademark in 1883 the image of a female chocolate server called “La Belle Chocolatière,” a role that Raquel replicated that afternoon. With our mutual “chocolate connection” thus established, it concluded with a hug of recognition when we departed.

This itinerary stop provided an unexpected highlight to a family footsteps journey to Cebu and served as a wonderful ending to yet another unforgettable O.A.T. adventure.

Discover the history and culture of the Philippines—a new destination for O.A.T.—during the post-trip extension to Discover Thailand.