After witnessing the acclaimed landmarks and colorful festivals of Bohol, travelers can also show their love to the island by getting to know homegrown brands that have flourished beyond the province.
By supporting local brands, tourists are helping keep small businesses open. On top of that, supporting locally owned businesses means helping create more jobs for the local folks. It also encourages aspiring entrepreneurs in town to open their dream businesses.
By shopping locally, people preserve the unique culture and characteristics of a community. Local products and brands are also much more environmentally sustainable. These businesses often make more local purchases for their products, which ultimately require less transportation, outsourcing, and use of non-recyclable packaging.
Here’s our guide to the local brands and products established and developed by people in Bohol, how they started, and where to find them.
1. Dalareich Chocolate House
Photo: Dalareich Chocolate House
Dalareich Chocolate House, located in Tagbilaran City, is the first chocolate factory in the province of Bohol. This renowned Chocolate House started operating in 1994 as a small family business owned and managed by Ricardo and Elsa Polot, and their daughter, Dalareich.
Through the years, the company has been making and manufacturing tableya – unsweetened chocolate tablets in disk form. Tableya is used in making sikwate, what Boholanos call chocolate drinks, and champorado or chocolate rice porridge. The company distributes tableya to local supermarkets and malls in the Philippines.
Dalareich also learned bean-to-bar making from the top chocolatiers in the world at Cacaolab in Belgium. Shortly after returning, she launched Ginto Chocolates, her bean-to-bar chocolate using their homegrown cacao beans in Bohol. Tourists can visit the Chocolate House, attend her workshops, or tour around her factory and the local farms to learn more about the process of making chocolates.
2. Dairy Box
Photo: Kathy d Gypsy
Based in the municipality of Carmen, Dairy Box is a top provider of carabao-based products in Bohol, from milk to pastries. The company is famous for its Chocobao, a freshly made carabao milk. Additionally, it sells cara-milk ice cream, pista bread, and pastries, such as milk cake and pastillas de leche. Dairy Box also offers milk bath soap.
The shop is founded by the Philippine Carabao Center and managed by the Tamboan Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative. It is also a member of Bohol Dairy, a dairy federation in Bohol that helps improve farmers’ livelihood by providing them processing equipment, supplies, and support services.
For visiting tourists, the Dairy Box outlet in Carmen is conveniently located just a few kilometers away from Chocolate Hills Adventure Park and the renowned Chocolate Hills.
3. Makata Shirts
Photo: Makata | Facebook
Makata is a local clothing and apparel brand located in Tagbilaran City, Bohol. The brand has a wide variety of seasonal collections, ladies and men’s lines, and apparel products. It started from being a printing business and has evolved into a successful clothing brand, using social media as an instrument to expand its market across the world, selling even to Filipinos abroad.
The brand’s slogan, “Wear Your Story,” resonates with customers who want to promote Filipino culture, history, and art. They are also continuously promoting environmental protection through their #GoGreenBohol campaign in partnership with the provincial government.
Makata also strives to help boost the local enterprises by providing freelance work opportunities to students across the country through their #Lokalista program.
4. Let’s Go Natural
Photo: Let’s Go Natural | Instagram
Let’s Go Natural makes handmade bags and accessories using 100% raw materials abundant in Bohol. These materials include raffia, rattan or wicker, shells, coconut husks, and palm leaves. They also sell beautiful accessories and masks made from beads, pearls, and semi-precious stones.
Related Article: Bohol Handicrafts and The Best Places To Get Them
The company primarily employs local women, enabling them to have a livelihood and teaching them different skills to make excellent products. Their creations have reached hotels and restaurants, providing handmade boxes, gift bags, and other conference materials.
5. Peanut Kisses
Photo: Myxilog
Peanut Kisses have been a favorite treat and pasalubong of tourists for over four decades. This delicacy is famous not only for being Bohol’s version of the Hershey Kisses (with a fun twist), but it also pays homage to the Chocolate Hills especially during the summer when it’s the dry season and the hills turn chocolate brown.
Made to resemble the shape of the Chocolate Hills, these Peanut Kisses are made from high-grade peanuts, cane sugar, and egg whites. The all-natural ingredients produce small bumpy cookies with a light nutty taste and a crisp texture.
The Peanut Kisses started during World War II, when the Butalid family decided to use their two-hectare peanut plantation at Buenavista, Bohol to make a product that they could sell to the public. The company is now known as the Bucarez Food Processing Corporation with the Peanut Kisses distributed widely, sold in packs or boxes in supermarkets.
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