Tsokolate Tablea – Simple Joys

My first ever memory of tablea was in the form of hot tsokolate (hot chocolate) during my first ever travel to Cebu/Bohol with the family when I was six years old. We were drinking it from a small karinderia at the port area of Surigao, at 4 in the morning, waiting for the boat that will take us to Bohol.

I remember it was so nice and warm and chocolate-y that nothing ever compared to the taste of it – not even Milo or the Milo Dinosaur and the more expensive ones like Swiss Miss and Hershey’s Chocolate powder.

Growing up, I can vividly remember all those summer afternoons with champorado as our mirienda prepared by lola or our house help. The kids have this before we head out for an afternoon play with the neighbour kids.

There is not much information about tablea online but from what I’ve read, what makes tablea special is the fact that it IS pure cocoa beans that has been dried, roasted, ground and formed into tablets (thus ‘tablea/tableya’). This process retains the cacao beans’ (cocoa) butter, which is somehow extracted when processing for cocoa powder (which are your Swiss Miss-es, Hershey’s, et al). Of course, having the cocoa butter in tablea makes it more flavourful, and possibly, a lot more fattening than your usual cocoa powder. But hey, YOLO. 🙂

I’m so happy with my purchase from the Philippines that I made tablea brownies (the chewy ones!) immediately and I plan to make other stuff, too. Of course, the usual hot tsokolate and champorado is already in the list. Hope someone from the Philippines can replenish tablea stash regularly. wink wink