The chocolate makers also champion local cacao-growing communities and help boost the industry throughout the region
The innovative chocolatiers on Asia’s Most Influential list fulfil not just the need for sweets and facilitate the expression of affection—all while helping raise the standards of cacao production and boost the status of the industry throughout the region. Working with local cacao communities, they create luxurious confections or everyday treats, whose pleasurable tastes are linked to the feeling of love. Their work is on our minds for Valentine’s Day, but their impact goes far beyond the season’s sweet tokens of affection. Here’s what it takes to get the region’s best chocolates from cacao bean to bonbons inside a beautiful box.
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Mark Ocampo, Philippines
Mark Ocampo co-founded Auro Chocolate to help the Philippines become an internationally competitive chocolate-producing country. The tree-to-bar chocolate company works directly with local farmers in Davao to produce its range of products, which include cacao butters, chocolate coins for baking, hot chocolate bombs (drop into hot milk to enjoy) and of course, bars and bonbons. Fulfilling Ocampo’s dream for Philippine chocolate, Auro exports to makers in the European Union and has opened chocolate cafés in Japan and Bahrain.
For Valentine’s Day 2023, Auro presents boxed bonbons in intriguing flavours such as calamansi pink peppercorn, ube pinipig and caramel beurre sale. The Filipino chocolatier has also partnered with Kowloon Shangri-la in Hong Kong for its Love at First Bite series, releasing a selection of lavash chocolates.
Read Mark Ocampo’s full profile on Asia’s Most Influential
