Tinapayan Festival celebrates 40 years with 'super pandesal'
MANILA, Philippines — Those who are regulars in Sampaloc, Manila are familiar with a bakery shop with the straightforward name. Tinapayan Festival has been around for 40 years, and for its milestone, it introduces a nutrient packed, cost-efficient pandesal variety that tries to be an answer to the rising prices of fuel, sugar and wheat.
Two aromatics, namely, pandan and lemongrass, are combined with super vegetable, malunggay, to make the Super Healthy Pandesal.
It would be hard to imagine combining three flavorful profiles, but these three together result to a bread that serves most of the nutritional needs, from essential vitamins and minerals to dietary fibers.
It is not the first time that the Filipino bakeshop attempted to introduce a healthier version of the beloved pandesal.
Tinapayan Festival Founder and General Manager Lucito Chavez started his business in 1982 along Sampaloc and called it Sa Ating Tinapayan.
Chavez was a gasoline station dealer when he bought a panaderia. He enrolled himself in baking classes, and tried to perfect baking bread. It was a natural course for Chavez, who hails from Cuenca, Batangas, which he said is home to a lot of bakers.
One of Tinapayan's earliest healthier pandesal was the Potato Bread, introduced in 1985. This bread is enriched with potato flour for longer shelf life. It was inspired by a famous bakeshop in Ermita, Manila where most of its bakers are from Cuenca.
In the 2000s, the bakery introduced more nutrient-dense baked goods. The Kamote Pandesal and Squash Pandesal were introduced in 2007. The Kamote Pandesal uses the kamote flour developed by Architect Nelson Cuevas. Through its nutrients, it offers benefits such as a strong immune system, healthy vision, and gut health.
Their Squash Pandesal is made with real bits and pieces of the brightly colored, sweet vegetable that is rich in vitamins that benefit the heart, eyes and colon.
Three years later in 2010, the Malunggay Pandesal was introduced. It was around that time that the trend became popular, with the humble green vegetable being incorporated in many other dishes, not just as an ingredient in favorite viands such as Munggo and Tinola. Malunggay is known to help control blood pressure, relieve headaches and migraines, and help restore skin condition.
Another vegetable was introduced into the pandesal recipe in 2014. Good for eyesight and skin health, the Carrot Pandesal is another option for those who want a healthier bread to go with their coffee.
Of course, the bakeshop also made its version of Ube Cheese and Sweet Potato Pandesal in 2017. The Ube Cheese Pandesal is soft, moist and rich in ube, which is a great source of carbohydrates, potassium, vitamin C, and fiber. The Sweet Potato Pandesal is hefty, packed, and full of nutrients.
Apart from pandesal, the bakeshop also offers other baked goods, including bestsellers Ube Loaf, Ensaymada, Napoleones, Queen's Chocolate Cake and Special Sylvannas.
"Tinapayan Festival uses agricultural products instead of pure trigo (wheat). Ang tinapay ay isang daang porsyentong trigo at ang trigo ay imported. Binibili natin 'yan ng dolyar. Alam naman natin na mahalagang mabuhay ang agrikultura ng Pilipino bilang ang Pilipinas ay isang agricultural country. Mababawasan ang importation ng ating trigo at lalawak ang agrikulturang Pilipino," said Chavez during the company's recent 40th anniversary virtual press conference.
The Filipino bakeshop plans to continue to innovate with agricultural products in the coming years. It also plans to open a new bakery in Chavez's hometown in Cuenca and a community bakery.
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