One February afternoon, I was down in the dumps lying on the sofa. I received a message that a delivery was on its way. A few minutes later, I received a beautiful sweet treat from The Chocolate Queen, Raquel Toquero-Choa. Seeing the beautiful package filled with The Chocolate Chamber chocolate treats before me, my mood lightened up. Like a little kid seeing a bunch of candies in one basket!
The huge box with the name, ChocOryza, piqued my curiosity. So I opened the box and saw small packs of chocolate rice crisps.
When I opened one pack, it sent me to my childhood when my family and I used to go for a ride South. We would buy these rice crispies called Ampao in Carcar. That was a fun memory. So imagine how happy I was when I got reunited with my childhood favorite covered in CHOCOLATE!
Every bite of the crunchy chocolate rice crisps teases my palates with this rich cacao flavor which I totally love. It has the right amount of sweetness so the taste doesn’t overwhelm you at all. It’s one perfect light snack that you can enjoy with a cup of coffee, tea, or tsokolate.
CHOCORYZA: A LITTLE GIRL’S LOVE FOR RICE
Beyond the chocolate creation I’ve tasted, Ms. Raquel shared in one of our conversations about ChocOryza that simply warmed my heart. The chocolate rice crisp wasn’t something she had thought of making out on a whim but there was something special about her chocolate creation.
“The chocolate creations that I made are quite special to me because the packaging shows the original painting by my son, JP when he was nine years old. ChocOryza is also special to me because rice is my weakness that until now I still have cravings for it.”
Raquel Choa felt nostalgic as she shared her humble beginnings when she was a little girl living with her grandmother, Nanay Nila. Before, they had to walk seven rivers and mountains to reach her other grandmother’s place. Mama Beray, whom she fondly calls has a rice field which they visit every summer. She and her little brother would stay in the “bahay kubo” for weeks in time for the harvesting season. The process of harvesting a grain of rice was quite tedious according to her. After the harvest, they would travel back to their home with a sack of rice with them. Before they can cook the rice, they have to remove the skin by the river using “lusong” and “alho.” Since the journey in getting the rice is quite hard and far, they only get to eat rice once a year and that is during summertime.
So when the idea of creating another sweet treat for her Batirol collection, she thought of reliving that beautiful rice memory into something beautiful by infusing tablea pure cacao tablets to the rice crisps to create one delicious experience. This is also her way to pay tribute to the farmers of Bohol who cultivated the land tirelessly making the province the rice granary of Central Visayas.
CHOCORYZA’S PACKAGING: A LITTLE BOY’S MASTERPIECE
One of Ms. Raquel’s children, John Paul or JP to his friends, loves to paint. He is fascinated by the works of Dutch post-impressionist painter, Vincent Willem Van Gogh. The artist’s influence made him aspire to paint his works using chocolate and this was clearly exhibited in the packaging of ChocOryza. John Paul named it “Bohol’s Beauty,” an appreciation of the wonders of nature — the lush greenery and cultivated rice fields of Chocolate Hills. John Paul painted the masterpiece when he was nine years old. His work is one of the featured works of Beyond Chocolate Series: Chocolate on Canvas by The Chocolate Chamber. Since then, “Bohol’s Beauty” has remained the face of the chocolate rice crisp packaging for years.
After knowing about the beautiful story behind ChocOryza, it has given me a new meaning. Every bite of the chocolate crisp will always remind me of that little girl who had traveled far and toiled under the sun for her love for rice. Now that’s a story beyond the chocolate creation that is worth sharing.
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