Photographed by Excel Panlaque
Food is fashion’s next frontier as Auro Chocolate Collaborates with Vogue Philippines for pieces inspired by the country’s rich culture.
Auro Chocolate has established a reputation for combining craftsmanship with a strong connection to Filipino culture, while continually exploring new ways for innovation. Their collaboration with Vogue Threads in Paris reflects this approach by merging tradition with creativity in a unique way.
At Auro’s chocolate factory in Laguna, a research and development team huddles over dozens of chocolate eggs, a small vignette of the care and hard work the company devotes to their craft.
From its edible eggshell to the little duckling inside made from white chocolate, each piece is assembled, gilded in foil, and shipped out to specialty souvenir shops in egg cartons, a cheeky homage to the Filipino balut for the Easter season. When the company announced the release of this product on social media, people couldn’t help but fawn over its simple yet clever design.
Novelties like these are what make Auro Chocolate’s creative pursuits adored by chocolate lovers. Their cacao has been heralded as some of the best in the world, but it still comes in a form so familiar to home.
This attention to quality blended with a tasteful showcase of Filipino culture is present throughout all their products over the years. This year, they continue to push boundaries of creativity as they collaborate with Vogue Threads in Paris.
Philippine-origin cacao takes on the form of the country’s national gem, the South Sea pearl, as a nod to Filipino fashion. A symbol of radiance and wisdom much like the Filipino spirit, the hazelnut chocolate pearl dragees inside each jewelry box are made from cacao sustainably sourced directly from local farmers.
Mark Ocampo, co-owner and managing director of Auro Chocolate shares with Vogue that he sees food concepts as a way for fashion brands to extend their identity, continuing the sartorial experience to the sense of taste.
“It’s an amazing honor for us to be able to participate in Paris Fashion Week and also be able to engage with a community we otherwise possibly wouldn’t be able to reach in that sense,” he says. “When you open [the packaging of the pearls], we wanted it to feel like a jewelry box where you could actually then kind of feel that excitement of opening something new.”
The South Sea pearl is one of the most prized natural gems in the world, coveted for its luster and signature golden color. Conceptually, cacao pods and pearl necklaces might seem to be of different worlds at first, but they aren’t so different under the surface: their beauty shines the best under the proper care of its experts and artisans. In Palawan, it takes a village to tend to the oysters for years before carefully bringing each gem to light. In Auro, there is a collaborative effort with partnered farmers in Davao, supported by a dedicated local team who work closely with them to nurture the cacao trees, harvest the pods, and craft it into award-winning chocolate. Bringing the two together, the chocolate South Sea pearl necklace can be enjoyed in two ways: through the ephemeral beauty of the piece and the rich flavor of the Auro chocolate.
The journey from bean to art
It’s always a proud moment for Ocampo and fellow co-owner and managing director Kelly Go when their team can highlight Filipino culture and ingredients through their craft. On the second level of the chocolate factory is a corner that serves as Auro’s “chocolate museum” of their past creative collaborations and projects. Lining its shelves and tables is the classic collection which started it all. The reserve collection — the company’s most premium items displayed like wine, as well as the wide range of baking chocolate products, cosmic chocolate bombs, and bars with flavors you’d have to taste to even comprehend—it’s a colorful history of all shapes and sizes.
It takes an immense amount of creativity to discover ways to make an already beloved confection even more enticing, and just as much passion to continuously do so with consistent quality over the years. It is this artistry that allows people from all walks of life to better appreciate Ocampo and Go’s mission to champion Philippine cacao.
Ocampo is able to endlessly talk about the passion that he and Go have for their partner communities. The two places importance on the collaboration with the farmers they work with as they were building Auro from the ground up. “I think what really sets us apart is that our company is focused on people first and foremost,” Ocampo says.
Before the brand’s official launch in 2017, Ocampo shared that he and Go had traveled to various cacao farming communities to speak with their residents to get to know them and their struggles. One of the most popular bars in their catalog is named after Barangay Paquibato in Davao del Sur.
Ocampo remembers meeting with every single farmer and talking to them about doing things differently to address the issues within the industry. Rather than employees, he sees them as collaborators. This entailed years of building their trust. “We would not be able to achieve the quality the country is now known for without the hard work and dedication of our partner farmers whom we continuously work with to improve and elevate cacao in the Philippines,” Ocampo reasons.
In 2019, Ocampo said their partner communities were able to earn significantly higher than what they used to earn per hectare in 2015, depending on the quality of their cacao. This makes cacao farming a more sustainable livelihood, encouraging younger generations to take up the mantle in their areas.
Seven years since they launched, Auro’s use of Philippine cacao has now been globally recognized, earning over seventy international accolades from prestigious award-giving bodies such as Academy of Chocolate (AoC), Great Taste Award, and International Chocolate Awards. It has twice been called as some of the best cacao beans in the world with the Cacao of Excellence award. Ocampo had always envisioned Auro to be at par, if not better than global brands, and this vision has come to fruition, with their distinctive bars now gracing stores shelves, gift boxes around the world, as well as their own flagship cafés in Metro Manila and overseas such as Bahrain and Japan.
Auro is primarily a chocolate manufacturer, but at the same time it also operates as a social enterprise, Ocampo emphasizes. The tree-to-bar journey he and Go embarked upon has not been without its challenges, but their vision and creative acumen have not only unlocked the potential of Philippine cacao but propelled it onto the global stage at Paris Fashion Week.
“We want to leave a legacy that is proudly Filipino,” says Ocampo. This is a legacy that honors our traditions and heritage, while constantly innovating for the future.
