My Mom Accidentally Upgraded Champurado — And Her Version Is Better for You

Every Filipino knows champurado. Glutinous rice, Tablea, hot water, a little sugar, topped with milk poured generously on top. Sometimes served with tuyo (dried fish) on the side — the sweet and salty combination that makes absolutely no sense until you try it, and then you cannot imagine it any other way. It is pure Filipino comfort food, the kind that fixes a cold morning before you even finish the first bowl.

My mom loves that combination. The hot chocolate, the warmth, the creaminess of it. But at some point — nobody in the family can remember exactly when — she quietly dropped the rice and replaced it with Quaker Oats.

Not because she read a nutrition article. Just because she wanted it that way. Her formula, her kitchen, her rules.

What she did not know — and what I only fully appreciated recently after getting my own cholesterol results back — is that she accidentally built one of the most heart-friendly evening drink combinations a Filipino can have. Her instinct was running a better health program than most people follow deliberately.

But here is where her version gets extraordinary. Because we are not talking about store-bought tablea.

She Makes the Tablea Herself

My mom is Boholana. Born and raised in Bohol — and if you know anything about Bohol, you know that sikwate is not just a drink there. It is identity. It is culture. It is, as the old saying goes, "food for the gods."

The tradition of tablea making in Bohol dates back to the Spanish colonial period, and the process of creating these tablets has been passed down through generations, preserving the authentic flavor that Bohol is known for. My mom is one of those generations.

She buys dried cacao beans at the public market. She roasts them at home — the whole house smells like it for hours, a smell I have known since childhood. Then she grinds them down and forms them by hand into the small round tablets that dissolve into hot water and become sikwate. No additives, no fillers, no corn starch, no wheat germ. Pure roasted cacao, nothing else.

For those who still make tablea at home, if they do not have a cacao tree in their yard, they buy cacao beans from a local market, bring those beans home and roast them over a fire, peel off each individual shell, and grind it all up. It is a rather involved process. Most people have stopped doing it. My mom has not.

This tradition is older than me. It is probably older than most things in this house. She brought it from Bohol to Surigao City when she moved, and she has been doing it exactly the same way ever since. The fact that I drink sikwate every morning and every evening — a habit I have written about before on this blog — did not come from a wellness article. It came from watching her do this my entire life.

What She Actually Does With It

The preparation is straightforward. She dissolves her homemade tablea in hot water, stirs until the sikwate is smooth and dark and the whole kitchen smells exactly the way it should. Then she adds Quaker Oats directly into the hot chocolate. Stirs. Lets it thicken for a minute or two.

That is the entire recipe.

No blender, no special technique, no measuring cups. The oats absorb the sikwate, the whole thing becomes thick and warm and deeply chocolatey, and it sits somewhere between a drink and a porridge — a very comfortable resemblance to champurado, except with zero glutinous rice in sight.

The Quaker Oats specifically — not a different brand, not a generic, not whatever is on sale that week. Quaker Oats. This is non-negotiable. She will remind the household that her oatmeal is running out even when there is still one unopened pack in the cupboard. We have learned to treat this as an urgent system alert. The one time we came home with a different brand, the silence that followed communicated everything without a single word being spoken.

(Not sponsored. But hey — we are open. 😄😄)

Why This Combination Is Actually Remarkable

Here is what makes her formula genuinely impressive from a health standpoint, beyond just being delicious.

The oats side: Quaker Oats — and oats in general — contain a specific soluble fiber called beta-glucan that is not found in meaningful amounts in glutinous rice, white rice, or most other Filipino staple grains. The research behind beta-glucan is unusually consistent. Studies have found that a daily intake of at least 3 grams may reduce total and LDL cholesterol by a meaningful percentage in people with elevated levels. My LDL is currently sitting at 166.54 — above the normal range, doctor appointment pending. I am paying close attention to this particular fiber right now. My mom has been eating it every evening for years without knowing the numbers behind it.

The tablea side: Because my mom's tablea is pure roasted cacao with zero fillers, it retains the full flavonoid content that commercial tablea products often dilute with additives. Cacao is packed with antioxidants, particularly flavonoids, which have their own research behind them for cardiovascular support and blood pressure regulation. Pure homemade tablea delivers significantly more of these than anything mass-produced on a store shelf.

Together: What she has in her bowl every morning is oat beta-glucan combined with pure cacao flavonoids — two ingredients, one bowl, both with solid evidence behind them for heart and gut health. The traditional champurado she replaced had neither of those things in any meaningful amount. She took Filipino comfort food and upgraded its nutritional profile without sacrificing a single degree of the comfort.

That is either extraordinary instinct or extraordinary luck. At 80-years old, still sharp, still roasting cacao beans at home, still managing her own household — I am starting to think there is not much difference between the two.

The Tradition Behind the Drink

One thing that struck me while thinking about this post is how deep the roots of this habit actually go.

Making a warm cup of hot chocolate from homegrown cacao became a common practice among Filipino households, and there is a certain nostalgia associated with it — whether it be memories of a warm homemade cup of sikwate or recollections of the tasty flavors of childhood. 

Despite the rising popularity of coffee during the late 19th century, sikwate was still the most consumed drink in the Philippines — Filipinos drank it in the morning instead of coffee, and in the afternoon instead of tea. 

Sikwate in the morning — the same ritual she grew up with in Bohol, carried forward across decades and across provinces. Coffee took over the rest of the country. This house did not get the memo, and I am glad.

I drink sikwate every day too, morning and evening. I always thought of it as just a personal preference. Now I understand it is a inheritance — a Boholano tradition handed down quietly, cup by cup, the way most important things are passed from one generation to the next.

Have you heard about adubado or kinutil? Tuba (coconut wine) + Sikwate. I'm gonna be writing another blog for this. Come back soon. 

You Can Try Her Version Tomorrow Morining

You do not need to make your own tablea from scratch — though if you want to, the process is exactly what I described: buy dried cacao beans, roast them, peel the shells, grind, form. Your lola might know how.

If you are starting from store-bought, look for tablea with the shortest ingredient list possible — ideally just cacao. The fewer the additives, the closer you are getting to what my mom has been making by hand all these years.

Boil water. Dissolve the tablea. Add Quaker Oats — or any rolled oats, but you did not hear that from this household. Stir and let it thicken for two minutes. Enjoy it warm.

Does it tastes like champurado? hhmmm. 

My mom figured this out without a single research paper. She just followed a tradition older than anyone in this family can remember and made it her own.

As usual, she was right.

Again, not sponsored Quaker Oats Company doesn't know I exist. 

-Mavs

System Disclaimer: The information in this post is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine. Think of this post as a diagnostic report — your doctor is the one who runs the actual repair.

Sources: 

Wetravelphilippines — Discovering Bohol's Rich Chocolate Culture Through Tablea Craftsmanship: https://wetravelphilippines.com/bohol/bohol-tablea/ Dame Cacao — What Is Tablea? All About Filipino Hot Chocolate: https://damecacao.com/tablea-tableya-sikwate/ Auro Chocolate — Cacao Story: Tableya, Sikwate, and the Rich Filipino Chocolate Tradition: https://aurochocolate.com/blogs/community-programs/cacao-story-tableya-sikwate-tsamporado-and-the-rich-filipino-chocolate-tradition PubMed — Cholesterol-Lowering Effects of Oat Beta-Glucan: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21631511/