Typhoon Ulysses descended on the Philippines, wreaking havoc throughout the archipelago, including Cagayan, Vince’s family’s home province and origin of our chocolate journey. Vince’s friends and family are safe, but the typhoon caused some of the worst flooding in decades, destroying crops and submerging whole villages in water.

We really wanted to do something to help, and doing it through chocolate seemed like a natural choice. Our newest bar – A Benefit for Typhoon Ulysses Victims in the Philippines – is a vegan white chocolate made using ube (purple yam) which was sourced, slow roasted, dried, & ground (an 8 hour process) by our friends at Layunin, a Vancouver-based pop up restaurant and trailblazers in the local Filipino Food Movement scene. We stone ground the ube with Philippine pineapple to create a bar with trademark ube texture, balanced by tropical and citrus notes. It contains no added colours, extracts, or flavourings – just ube, pineapple, organic cacao butter, and a small amount of unrefined cane sugar.

This bar is now available in our online shop. (UPDATE: *Thank you so much for your amazing support for this bar and for the cause of bringing aid to typhoon victims. We are now sold out, but please check back as we’ll have more in a few days.*)

The bar cover depicts a carabao (water buffalo) swimming through a river and was painted by Vancouver-based artist and Kasama team member Ann Liao. In the Philippines, water buffalos are a symbol of strength, perseverance and resiliency. It serves as a reminder for us to cherish the foundation of community and friendship that we’ve built, and to come to each other’s aid during times like this.

50% of proceeds from the sale of this new chocolate bar will go directly towards the purchase of supplies for flood victims in affected towns in Cagayan. Since the typhoon landed, we have been corresponding regularly with typhoon relief workers and volunteers from the town of Tuao and from the Provincial Health Office in Peñablanca. We’d like to thank Maria Peachina Matammu and Dr. Rhea Danguilan for the updates and photos below: