March 17, 2017

Keeping Traditions with Tsoko.Nut Batirol

9 out of 10 people like chocolate, the 10th person always lies hahaha! But you know, it is always a good time for coffee and cake right, especially if chocolate is laden in every drink and cake. So one Saturday from one foodie meet up to another, me and my fellow foodies squeezed in a detour to this coffee shop called Tsoko.Nut Batirol somewhere in the Tomas Morato area. 




Tsoko.Nut Batirol is an all-Filipino cafe serving locally sourced coffee, dishes and desserts. Tsokonut is a local and well-known snack made of chocolate and ground nuts, while Batirol actually refers to the metal mixing pot used to prepare the hot chocolate beverage while they use a molinillo (wooden whisk), to manually blend the chocolate. 






Tsoko.nut Batirol is one of those local cafes that wants to continue the tradition of serving good old chocolate drinks made from local cacao beans prepared the old school way. Dating back to the Spanish Colonial era, when the colonizers brought an exotic Central American drink called xocolatl to our country and encouraged our local farmers to plant and grow cacao trees.  Back then, tsokolate ah was a status symbol for wealthy Spaniards and Filipinos. 




The locals, with their ingenuity for always owning and creating their own version, created a watered-down version called the tsokolate ah which is lighter variant of the drink and means they can produce and share more. The original one is very thick and rich and can only be afforded by the well-off. 



Besides serving the traditional chocolate drink and other chocolate and coffee-based drinks, Tsoko.Nut Batirol also prides itself with its line of cakes, pastries, breads and other dishes like rice meals and pastas. My fellow bloggers and I decided to get some of those drinks and cakes instead, like for snack only because we’re just waiting for another foodie meet up to start and we’re going to eat a couple of dishes actually. We all just need coffee to perk us up.


Kape Tisoy – the clever name that actually translates to Café Americano. It is a style of coffee prepared by brewing espresso with added hot water, giving it a similar strength to, but different flavor from drip coffee. It is plain straight coffee with which you can add creamer, milk or sugar. 



Tsokonut – this is the main drink of Tsokonut. I don’t know thought if what they’re serving is the tsokolate ah or the tsokolate eh.  If it’s the “eh” it should be thick and rich, if it’s the “ah” it should be a bit watered down and thin. But by the feedback of my friend, he says it isn’t thick and probably had a great amount of milk, but the nutty flavor was nice. I tried it by using a spoon to scoop some and yeah it wasn’t thick but the nutty undertone was obvious. There is froth on the surface too which is the byproduct of using batirol and molinillo in preparing it. But I think being a café that serves traditional tsokolate batirol, they chocolate drink could have been thicker.



Salted Kape Karamel – this was my order, I always drink cold coffee. I enjoy it better than the hot ones. The presentation was nice and the whip cream was milky and creamy. I’m not really into sweet coffee taste (I’m more of a mocha kind-of-person) but this sounded interesting so this is what I ordered. It was too sweet for me, it’s more like a caramel drink than a coffee drink, also I didn’t taste any of the saltiness not even a hint. It was ok though.



Mocha Latte Shake – this was ordered by my friend and presented just like the salted caramel that I ordered. Latte is a coffee drink made with espresso and steamed milk while mocha incorporates chocolate and milk. So basically this was coffee, milk and chocolate in a shake form. My friend said it was ok and nothing very special about it.



Sans Rival Yema - Sans Rival Yema - Yema cake had a recent big hit and has been creating a buzz among Filipinos. Yema is a well-loved and old school chewy candy or sweets that Pinoys love; it is made from condensed milk and egg yolk. This yema cake has a light in texture, it still has a rich milky flavor because of the yema frosting and layers. It’s basically custard but the sweetness level is over-the-top. It’s how we Filipinos love it. The original san rival cake uses butter frosting and filling, already sinful as it is, but Tsokonut’s version made it more sinful by incorporating yema with it. There is still the layers of the meringue wafers of the sans rival and the cashew nuts. We all loved it. 



Brownie Cheesecake – true to it's name and yes, it's brownie and cheesecake layers. The cheesecake part tasted like the usual cheesecake. The brownie part was a bit dry for my liking. I like my brownies gooey and moist. This was ok.



Tsoko, Kreme N Mangoes – this is basically a dupe of Conti’s Mango Bravo Cake. But Tsoko.Nut version has doesn’t have the meringue layer of the latter. Though that is compensated by the layers of chocolate chiffon cake and more cashew nuts. Also, unlike the Mango Bravo, this version doesn’t require to be inside a ref most of the time. It doesn’t melt and gets soggy that quickly unlike the mango bravo, which is a good thing I think. The cream tasted good and the there is a good amount of mango cubes. We all agreed that we really like this cake and it’s a good choice because it’s crunchy, nutty, fruity, chocolatey and creamy. A must-order if you happen to find yourself in any Tsoko.Nut café. 



The place is homey and with a great cozy ambiance. I also heard that they have a great internet connection, so people who needs to business or school projects can make this as their tambayan while munching on great pastries and cakes and sipping on good coffee. For the lack of oomph with their drinks, I liked that it was compensated by how good their cakes are. Will I still go back? Of course, there’s one branch very near where I work and they close late, but I would come back for the cakes though and not for the drinks. Uhm, I’ll try Tsokolate again though, one of these days, maybe, just maybe, my mind will change about their drinks. 

TSOKO.NUT BATIROL
Scout Reyes Street Cor. Mother Ignacia Ave. 
Paligsahan, Quezon City, Philippines
Contact No: 02 3979939
Facebook: facebook.com/TsokoNut-Batirol
Instagram: instagram.com/tsokonutbatirolph


For more information, complete menu and restaurant reviews, check out their Zomato profile: 
Tsoko Nut Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

post signature 
Follow Me:  Facebook | Instagram | Twitter 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Powered by Jasper Roberts - Blog