Malagos Chocolate

Malagos is a farm in the hills outside Davao that grows cacao, ferments and dries its own beans, and makes chocolate on the same property - a tree-to-bar operation, which is rare anywhere and rarer still in a country that has historically exported beans rather than finished chocolate. Its bars have won international awards, which drew attention to Philippine cacao generally; the Davao region produces the majority of the national crop. The Chocolate Museum on site covers the plant, the history of cacao in the Philippines going back to the Spanish galleon trade, and the process from pod to bar, with tours that walk visitors through fermentation boxes and drying beds and end in a tasting. The wider Malagos property includes a garden resort and a bird park. Traditional Filipino tsokolate - stone-ground tablea whisked into hot water - is the older use of the same crop and is served here alongside the modern bars.

What you actually see

• The cacao trees - pods growing on the trunks.
• The fermentation and drying - boxes and beds on the farm.
• The chocolate museum - the history and process explained.
• The tasting - bars and traditional tablea drinking chocolate.

When to go

Year-round; February to May is driest. Tours run on a schedule - book ahead, particularly at weekends.

Honest expectations

Tours are ticketed and run at set times, not on demand. It is an hour from central Davao with no useful public transport. The farm is a commercial operation and the tour ends in the shop.

Nearby

The Philippine Eagle Center is in the same district; Eden Nature Park is on the next ridge.