Care for some Chocolate Mangoes?

In this little brown nugget, you will find Heaven.

I'm not joking.

This is among the best-tasting chocolate nuggets I have ever come across in a long while.

The good news is that it's locally made.

And it's not as fattening as your regular chocolates.

Introducing Chocolate Mangoes -- a new treat to love by new foodie on the block, Cocoa Monster Manila!

Before I go on about the team that created this wonderful delight, first allow me to explain why it's not as fattening as other chocolates.

Cocoa Monster Manila uses dark chocolate for their chocolate mangoes, which uses less milk and therefore, has lessened fat and cholesterol. Dark chocolate is roughly 70 to 80 percent pure cacao which is the main ingredient in chocolate, and thus gives more of the wonderful positive effects that chocolates induce in the body.

Take a bite into this nugget and you will be surprised to find a chunk of chewy dried mango in it. The chewy texture and slightly tangy taste of the dried mango, combined with the subdued sweetness of the dark chocolate, make for an exciting dessert experience.

Apart from the chocolate mangoes, Cocoa Monster Manila also has other cocoa products from polvoron to the more traditional tablea bars, but the chocolate mangoes are their flagship product.

Cocoa Monster Manila proudly states in its Facebook page that everything about their chocolates -- from the cacao beans to the bars -- are all Philippine-made. That is why prices of their products are not as exorbitant as those of their imported counterparts. This box in the picture above, for example, already contains 19 bite-sized nuggets, and is priced at PhP 250. They have another set of chocolate mangoes where the dried mango slices are dipped in dark chocolate and placed in nicer packaging. It's a tad more expensive, but if the buyer plans on giving these chocolate mangoes to an OFW relative or to someone special, this variant on the right is the best bet for increased chances of swooning.

At present, you can catch Cocoa Monster Manila's goodies in kiosks they set up during weekends in malls like Alabang Town Center, Eastwood Mall, SM Aura, or Glorietta 4. They're still "wandering nomads" in a sense since their kiosks move around quite a lot, but the sales person at Eastwood Mall where I got my chocolate mangoes said that since October, they have been a permanent fixture in the said shopping center every weekend.

However, one's best chance of finding Cocoa Monster Manila's kiosks is by following them on their Facebook page where they regularly announce their location for the coming weekend. They also posted several contact numbers there for inquiries and for possible orders.

Yup, gotta love those chocolate mangoes! Choco na, mangga pa!


- First two photos are mine. Third photo is from the Cocoa Monster Manila Facebook page.