1. Down to Earth Farm in the Department of Agriculture booth

Beautifully lush with vibrantly deep colors are the local produce of Down to Earth, all organic and sustainably grown to produce biodynamic vegetables.

Grown on living soil, free from chemicals, pesticides and using only sustainable agricultural practices, items here include flavor-packed micro greens, colorful edible flowers, wild cherry tomatoes, amaranth, sorrel, and other home vegetables.

They also prepare Nurture Boxes that combine five to six kinds of vegetables in season, delivered right to your doorstep on a weekly basis.

2. Aro-en Gourmet Salt

From the premiere salt fields of Pangasinan comes Aro-en Gourmet Salt of Salinas Foods, a selection of fine sea salts to match different culinary pairings.

Ten kinds to be exact, including the prized fleur de sel variety that is only harvested for a specific time at daybreak.

Aro-en is a phrase that means “to love” in Pangasinan, where these salts are created to share the warmth of cooking well-made food in every home.

3. Tigre y Oliva Chocolates

It could very well be mistaken for a European chocolate bar for its taste and elegant packaging, but Tigre y Oliva proudly states its cocoa as coming from the Philippines on its label.

These are fine chocolates hand-crafted from bean to bar using single origin cocoa grown for the first time in La Union. Its cocoa content ranges from 70 to 75 percent to produce one of the silkiest bittersweet bars you’ve ever enjoyed.

4. Cavite Craft Beer

If there’s any truth to the saying that Caviteños are made of stronger stuff, then we all know where their craft beer’s full-bodied flavor takes after.

Great Islands Craft Brewery is proudly Cavite-made and showcases a line of unique and decidedly Filipino beer flavors like Puto Bumbong and Halo-Halo. But their Pale Ale, served in bottles and draft, is clearly a winner with its powerful bittersweet notes that go down smooth and rich.

Marketed by Philippine Craft Kings, they deliver with a minimum order of 48 bottles.

5. Hiraya Bakery

This innovative shop hailing from San Pablo, Laguna brings our much-loved bakery goodies up-to-date with their rustic chic packaging and by putting a twist to their flavors. They offer lemon uraro, rosemary caramel shortbread, brownies with fresh wild raspberries, chocolate alfajores, and cerveza negra chocolate cake.

6. Albay Pili

What could be more quintessentially Albay than its famous pili nut? Aside from Albay Pilinut Candy’s sweet and salty crispy varieties, raw nuts are the rave now and Cracking Monkey offers bags of raw in-shell pili nuts packed with its own cracking device.

7. One Mindanao products

Definitely the culinary basin of the country, the different regions of Mindanao proudly highlight their individual treasures at the expo:

A. Cacao from Davao – Experience pure chocolate bliss from Malagos, or get it flavored with calamansi or mint and sweetened with coconut sugar from Cacao de Davao. Or just enjoy the cacao nibs mixed in with the crunch and goodness of Wit’s Spiced or Tangy Granola.

B. Pangus from Maguindanao – Lake Buluan’s Gourmet Pangus is bottled sun-baked salted fish cooked with spices and herbs, and packed in olive oil.

C. Alavar seafood products from Zamboanga – Savor the wonderful flavors of Bacalao de Chavacano, Ginamus and Alavar Sauce, All bottled and ready to use.

8. Kalamansi products

No longer playing second fiddle to its citrus cousin, the lemon, our very own kalamansi is enjoying the limelight bottled in the form of pure extract, as pure oil, as Kalamancello which is a kalamansi cocktail sweetened with coco nectar, or as a drink concentrate.

Their applications range from cooking, baking, drinking and as a soothing tonic for wellness.

9. Lutong Tatung Kinilaw Sauce and Sinugba Marinade

Nothing could be quicker to make when your sauce or marinade is just a pour away.

Chef Tatung Sarthou’s signature sauce for kinilaw is well-seasoned with the right balance of salty and sour notes for the perfect pulutan, while his marinade for inihaw firmly gets the Pinoy’s penchant for sweet-salty flavors in their food.

The kinilaw sauce can be used as a dip as well for chicharon, and with a squeeze of kalamansi over the marinade, it works double time as marinade and sauce for the inihaw.

10. Me Trang Coffee from Vietnam

There is no arguing about the quality and great taste of our locally sourced roasted beans. But Vietnamese coffee, made with Robusta beans rather than Arabica, stands alone in its straightforward, no-frills, punch-you-in-the-gut strong flavor that goes so well with the sweetness of condensed milk without diluting its strength.

No other coffee works as good under this pairing. When all you need is a good jolt of caffeine (plus a good bhan mi to go with it), Vietnamese coffee delivers.