Don Salvador Benedicto Cacao Belt
Description
Cacao cultivation in the highland farming barangays. In Don Salvador Benedicto, the highland town between Bacolod and San Carlos, cool enough to grow what the lowlands can’t. Cacao here is backyard-scale rather than plantation — trees in house lots, beans dried on mats, then roasted, ground and pressed into tablea discs. Tablea is pure cacao with nothing added; it’s what sikwate and champorado are made from. Buy at the town market and ask for the local one rather than a commercial brand.
Tips
The Ceres bus from Bacolod to San Carlos via DSB runs straight through the farming country and is both faster and cooler than the coastal route — ask to be dropped at the market. Bring a layer; it"s genuinely cold up here by Negros standards.
Stops
Northern Sugar & Seafood Corridor
How to get there
Ceres bus, Bacolod to San Carlos via Don Salvador — about 2 hours, historically around ₱130, and the faster of the two routes. Ask to be dropped at the market.
Best Times
Morning, while highland produce is being brought to market.