Tableas are unsweetened tablets made from pure cacao beans. The beans are roasted in large metal vats over charcoal then passed through a grinder to form a paste, which is then molded into small round tablets. These tablets are dried for several hours until they harden. Tablea is used to make sikwate (the Cebuano word for native hot chocolate made from tablea), which is typically served with mango and puto (sticky rice with coconut milk).


Tabléa Chocolate has its roots in Filipino tradition and in a long-standing family ritual. Tabléa Chocolate founder Aya Garcia-Shlachter was influenced by the culinary artistry of her mother, and the entrepreneurial vision of her father. For years, her mother’s sikwate (the Cebuano word for hot chocolate) has satiated visitors to the family’s Cebu home. It was her father’s idea that this highly sought-after sikwate could be the basis of a viable business. Aya took her mother’s recipe and her father’s idea and translated it into a chocolate café with a modern touch.The common thread that ties together the menu of Tabléa Chocolate is tablea itself. Tabléa Chocolate offers an array of cacao-based and tablea-based products. We take pride in using real cacao harvested from cacao trees throughout the Philippines, and aim to help reinvigorate the Filipino cacao growing industry and to establish strong partnerships with our tablea suppliers, whom have been carefully selected through extensive research into the highest quality and best tasting tablea.