Auro

Golden chocolate from the Philippines

The name Auro (pronounced as ‘oro’) derives from ‘Au’ – the chemical designation for gold – and ‘oro’ – the word for gold in Filipino and Spanish.

In the Philippines, cocoa cultivation was introduced 300 years ago, as the first country in Asia. A rich cultural tradition arose around it, but nearly collapsed as cheap low-quality chocolate from Africa flooded global markets. To change this trend, Kelly Go and Mark Ocampo  started Auro in May 2015 after training as chocolatiers at ZDS in Solingen (Germany). Their company is involved in every step of the chocolate making process: from cultivation and harvesting to packaging.

Auro uses cocoa directly collected from the farmers, who use organic cultivation methods and preserve heirloom cocoa varieties. The names of Auro’s single estate chocolates refer to the origin of the cocoa beans. Auro support their farmers with farm management, international quality standards, organic farming methods and post-harvest processing. And of course Auro pays the farmers a more than fair price: two to three times the market price.