100 attend launch of Chico de Marianas

Around 100 VIPs attended the launch of the Chico de Marianas at Kensington Hotel Saipan’s OHAS Cafe last Friday and all went home mesmerized with the fascinating taste of the CNMI’s first homegrown chocolate souvenir. 

Guy Pudney, Marianas Pacific Distributors resident manager, said he will surely take advantage of the chocolate’s buy-1, take-1 promotion that evening because it’s just that good.

“All are delicious and my favorite is the donni sali. Man, it’s so delicious with just a very slight hint of heat and the tourists are going to love this. This is something to take home, even our visitors from the States and Guam when they come here I have a feeling they will be looking for this.” 

Rep. Vicente Camacho (D-Saipan) said there’s something with the Chico de Marianas that will make anyone come back for more.

“All chocolates are good but if you add a little oomph to it, it makes a lot of difference. I liked the lemon the most because it’s sourness complements its sweetness. Sweet and sour, I love it!”

The daughter-and-mother pair of Teeon and Velma Palacios, meanwhile, have different favorites.

“Lime is my favorite because of the dark chocolate. The pika is not for me. I think it is just too spicy for me. It was good but I’m not really into spicy chocolates,” said the former.

“I like the spicy, then the lime, then the mango, and then the potato,” added the latter.

For Jolene Sablan, the heat of the doni sali was just right. 

“My favorite is the pika because I love pika and it just has a nice balance of chocolate and spice. It just had the spicy finish that I like.”

Pacific Islands Club Saipan general manager Gloria Cavanagh, meanwhile, couldn’t really make up her mind as to what flavor of chocolate is her favorite. 

“It’s a tie between lime and pika. I think with the lime it’s because of the dark chocolate. It’s also not overly sweet and it had a tang with it. With the pika it just has a very unique taste with the spicy kick at the end.” 

As already mentioned, Chico de Marianas comes in four unique flavors—ma’aksom (citrus sour lime), duci (tropical sweet mango), pika (spicy hot pepper), and ppwil (creamy sweet potato).

The Chico de Marianas’ creators—Kensington chefs Sung Won “Sam” Hong and Haena Kim—also revealed that there are actually steps to indulge on the desert as they suggest to try out ma’aksom first, then duci second, pika third, before capping it off with ppwil to fully experience their rich flavors.

Speaking at the start of the event, E-Land CEO Brian Shin said the main motivation for Chico De Marianas, which means “Kiss of Marianas in Chamorro,” is for the CNMI to finally have its own chocolate souvenir conceptualized, made, and ingredients sourced from the islands. 

“The CNMI is a multi-island destination and I was always wondering, in fact, a lot of our team members always wondered, what is the special souvenir that our tours can take away when they’re visiting the CNMI that represents us? There are a lot of great products out there that you can find from a lot of retail stores like I Love Saipan, DFS Saipan, and ARC. However, there’s nothing really representative that’s made in the CNMI so what we did is we came up with a product that uses ingredients from the Marianas,” he said.

Shin added that it actually took Kensington Hotel nine months to come up with the name, three months to procure the molding from Turkey, and even specially ordered the premium chocolate ingredients from Belgium. 

Chico de Marianas is available 10am-5pm everyday at OHAS Café in Kensington Hotel Saipan. It costs only $19.90 per box and $70 for four boxes. It’s also available at DFS Galleria Saipan. 

For more information about Chico de Marianas or to reserve orders, call (670) 322-3311.