“Re-inventing Pasalubong”
Taste and See Psalm 34:8 Homemade Specialties started developing products on November 2009 when Mrs. Robles brought home packs of pastillas from a seminar, where the idea to have pastillas as business to become source of income. Taste and See started the unique shape of milk pastillas and wrapped it with different colors of cellophane to make it more attractive and eventually discovered that we can toast it to give the pastillas a more unique taste. In 2010, Taste and See started selling pastillas to close relatives and small stores nearby and on 2014 started marketing in commercial. Bulacan is known for its pasalubong products like ensaymada, inipit, pastillas, chicharon etc. in relation to this, Taste and See would like to put a twist on the usual taste of pastillas thus toasted pastillas came up.
Taste and See toasted pastillas became a must list of kababayans in their list of pasalubong in going abroad. Toasted pastillas were reaching foreign lands thru Balikbayan boxes. Products include: Toasted Pastillas, Caramel Pastillas, Cookies and Cream Pastillas, Milk Pastillas, Fermented vinegar, Lechera Tower and Chili Garlic. These products were able to reached its customers nationwide thru re-sellers and active social media presence, and delivered thru LBC, Grab and Lalamove.
Presently the business is employing twelve (12) high school graduates from the community and nearby barangay that helped them in their livelihood. Taste and See also boast of a special process to make the pastillas candy firm and chewy in the inside. The classic milky and creamy Bulacan pastillas made even more delicious by toasting that gives it unique and distinct taste. Existing production capacity ranges from 8,000 – 10,000 packs per month.
Mrs. Marivic Robles never stops from improving and marketing. As part of the OTOP Next Gen 2019, Taste and See venture to a more improved packaging, from just a mere plastic to a more attractive box. With legal documents on hand, Taste and See was able to participate last Likha ng Central Luzon Trade Fair 2019, launched the new packaging and was able to get big orders from institutional buyers from Manila.