Our Artisans
Auro Chocolate
Auro Chocolate is an award winning, proudly Filipino bean-to-bar company that produces fine cacao and chocolate made from cacao beans sourced directly from their partners in Davao, the cacao capital of the Philippines. They buy their beans at higher value to inspire quality and to give farmers the opportunity to improve their standard of living.
Auro goes beyond “bean-to-bar” by involving themselves in every step of the process. They work directly with over 5 cacao producing cooperatives and 50 individual farmers representing more than 1,000 families and 2,000 hectares of farm land.
Top 20 Best Cacao Beans in the World
In October 2019 during the Salon du Chocolat in Paris, France the cacao beans of Mr. Jose Saguban, our farming partner and member of Paquibato Tree Developers Cooperative, was awarded by the Cocoa of Excellence as one of the top 20 best cacao beans out of the 223 samples coming from 55 countries. He is the first Filipino cacao farmer to win Top 20 Best Cacao from International Cacao Awards of Cocoa of Excellence.
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Theo & Philo
The story of Theo & Philo is one borne out of a passion for food, fearless flavors, and the Filipinos’ timeless love affair with chocolate.
Theo is short for Theobroma Cacao, the scientific name of the cacao tree, which is the source of all chocolate. Cacao beans can only grow in regions that are within 20 degrees of the equator. This makes the Philippines the perfect place to grow them and this is rooted in the country's agricultural heritage. The Philippines was the first Southeast Asian country to grow cacao trees.
Theo & Philo proudly honors high-quality local ingredients—from the cacao beans of Davao in Mindanao, where fertile land and temperate climates produce some of the best cacaos in the region, and the world-famous sugar of Bacolod—and the renowned craftmanship of Filipinos as we share the distinct culture and fearless flavors of the finest single-origin chocolates from this side of the world. Every bar of Theo & Philo chocolate is a masterpiece, carefully crafted to capture the rich heritage of the Filipinos.