06/10/2026
Hello mga Ka-Chocolate! ☺️
I shared a little about my recent trip to Hangzhou for Alibaba’s HerPower Global Program, but there are still so many stories and learnings from those four days that I want to bring home and share with you.
It was a very different world from the one I work in every day. We talked about AI, e-commerce, fintech, cloud technology and how businesses are changing. Meanwhile, my everyday world is mostly chocolate, cacao, cafés, customers and the occasional question of why a batch of chocolate is behaving differently today. 😅
But surprisingly, many of the things I saw in Hangzhou made me think about Cacao Culture.
One thing that stayed with me was seeing how Alibaba built an ecosystem where different parts of the business support each other. Commerce connects to payments, logistics, technology and data.
Of course, our little chocolate company in Davao is nowhere near that scale. 😂 But it made me realize that we have been building our own kind of ecosystem too.
When you order a chocolate drink or pick up some pasalubong from us, you see the finished product. Behind it is a much longer story.
A farmer grew the cacao. Someone harvested, fermented and dried it. Our team turned those beans into chocolate, packed it and brought it to our shops. Eventually, one of you takes it home, gives it as a gift or shares it with someone else.
And that whole chain matters.
If our farmers grow, our chocolate gets better. If our systems improve, our team can do better work. If our cafés create good experiences, more people discover Philippine chocolate.
And if more Filipinos choose and proudly share Philippine chocolate, the whole ecosystem becomes a little stronger.
After ten years, I think I understand our work a little differently.
We are not only trying to make and sell more chocolate. We are helping build a stronger place for Philippine chocolate, from the people who grow cacao to the people who enjoy it.
Medyo malayo ang Hangzhou sa Davao, but sometimes you have to travel far to see something at home a little more clearly. 🍫🇵🇭
