Inspired by Chocolate

The Filipinos taste buds love chocolate! Since the Spaniards brought Cacao plants from Mexico, the crop turned us into a country that craves for something sweet. Jesusa Gadil, resident of Brgy. Luntad, Palo, Leyte, banked on the Filipino’s sweet tooth.

Banking on chocolate lovers

In 2006, Jesusa saw an opportunity to sell cocoa tablea. Tsokolate tablea or just tablea means Chocolate Tablets in English. Dried local cocoa beans are roasted and ground to a rich, chocolate-y paste. The tablets or tablea are formed by adding sugar and molding in shapes like tablets. Some would use tablea to create drinks and whisk it using a batirol. Others would use it to prepare desserts.

Jesusa began cooking chocolate moron, a native delicacy of Leyte, using tablea as one of the ingredients. Her friends and neighbors loved the taste of the moron. Before she knew it, orders began pouring in and her capital could no longer support the rapid demand for her product.

One morning, while passing by her neighbor’s house, she saw a group of women having a meeting. One of her friends, who happened to be there, asked her if she wants to join the group. The meeting was about CARD Bank, a member of CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions, a microfinance institution. She joined CARD Bank with a starting loan of 3,000 pesos.

Together with her husband Edito Gadil and their 13 children, they managed to take orders of her moron and tablea. “There are times in your life when you have to take chances because you don’t know when that ‘chance’ will change your life,” the 65-year old entrepreneur said.

Her business was not always sweet. Some customers were not able to pay for their orders and Jesusa had to shoulder the amount and look for money. “Sometimes I just borrow from my neighbors and friends just to help me cover the amount needed. As my business grew, my loan in CARD MRI helped me a lot in financing my sari-sari store and my moron, and tablea production. Now, I can borrow 50,000 pesos from CARD,” she added.

Reintroducing tablea to the world

Today, her chocolate moron and tablea are exported to USA and other countries here in Asia. She is letting the world know our country through the taste of our tablea.

“I know that I can rely on CARD in terms of my business. I cannot imagine where I am today without CARD MRI,” she said.

Jesusa is one of the many inspiring Filipinas who took chances and braved what is beyond her comfort zone. CARD MRI aims to lift women, like Jesusa, who thinks of the betterment of her family and the nation.