What Is Champorado? Discover the Filipino Chocolate Rice Porridge

Warm, rich and wonderfully comforting, champorado is one of the Philippines' best-loved dishes. This traditional Filipino chocolate rice porridge combines sticky rice with the deep flavour of cacao to create something that sits deliciously between breakfast and dessert.

For many Filipinos, champorado is much more than a bowl of chocolate rice. It's a taste of childhood, rainy mornings, family kitchens and home.

At Siocolat, we've taken inspiration from this much-loved Filipino classic to create our own vegan, no-added-sugar Chocolate Rice Porridge, bringing a traditional flavour into an easy-to-prepare format for modern life.

What Is Champorado?

Champorado (pronounced cham-po-RA-do) is a Filipino chocolate rice porridge traditionally made by cooking glutinous rice, known in the Philippines as malagkit, with cacao or cocoa and sugar.

The result is thick, creamy and intensely chocolatey.

It's commonly served warm for breakfast or merienda (an afternoon snack), although there's really no wrong time for a comforting bowl of champorado.

Milk or condensed milk is often drizzled over the top for extra creaminess. One of the most distinctly Filipino ways to eat it is alongside tuyo, a salty dried fish.

Chocolate rice and salty fish might sound like an unusual combination if you've never tried it, but the contrast between sweet and salty is exactly what makes this traditional pairing so memorable.

Where Did Champorado Come From?

Champorado has an interesting history that reflects the Philippines' centuries of cultural exchange.

The dish is generally associated with Mexican champurrado, a thick chocolate drink traditionally made with corn masa.

During the Manila–Acapulco galleon trade between Mexico and the Philippines, culinary ideas and ingredients travelled alongside people and goods.

Filipinos adapted the concept using an ingredient central to local cooking: sticky rice.

Over generations, it evolved into the chocolate rice porridge now recognised as champorado.

It's a wonderful example of Filipino food culture—taking influences from elsewhere and transforming them into something distinctly our own.

Why Champorado Means So Much to Filipinos

Ask Filipinos about champorado and you'll often get a story rather than simply a description of the food.

It might remind someone of their mother making breakfast before school, their grandmother cooking during rainy weather, or sitting around the family table with a steaming bowl topped with milk.

For Filipinos living abroad, foods like champorado can carry an even deeper meaning.

Taste and aroma have an extraordinary ability to transport us home.

That's one reason Siocolat celebrates Filipino and Southeast Asian flavours. We want familiar flavours to remain part of modern food culture while also introducing them to people discovering them for the first time.

What Does Champorado Taste Like?

Imagine a warm chocolate pudding combined with soft, chewy sticky rice.

Champorado has a rich cacao flavour balanced by sweetness, while the rice gives it a substantial and comforting texture.

Depending on how it's prepared, champorado can be:

- thick and pudding-like

- softer and more porridge-like

- intensely chocolatey

- creamy with added milk or coconut

- served hot or chilled

Every Filipino family seems to have its preferred consistency.

Traditional Champorado vs Siocolat Champorado

Traditional champorado recipes usually contain sticky rice, cacao or cocoa, sugar and milk.

At Siocolat, we've created a convenient version inspired by the traditional dish while giving it our own plant-based twist.

Siocolat Chocolate Rice Porridge (Champorado) is:

No added sugar – created without adding conventional table sugar.

Vegan friendly – made with plant-based ingredients.

Made with cacao – for the deep chocolate flavour that makes champorado so distinctive.

Made with coconut – bringing creamy, tropical notes that complement the cacao.

Convenient – an easy way to enjoy Filipino-inspired comfort food at home.

Always check the individual product label for the latest ingredient, allergen and nutritional information.

How Do You Eat Champorado?

The simplest way is also one of the best: serve it warm in a bowl and enjoy it with a spoon.

But there are plenty of ways to make champorado your own.

Try adding a splash of your favourite plant-based milk for extra creaminess. Sprinkle coconut flakes over the top for texture, add sliced banana or fresh berries for a fruity contrast, or scatter over chopped nuts for some crunch.

And if you're feeling adventurous, try the traditional Filipino combination of champorado and tuyo.

Sweet chocolate and salty dried fish is one of those combinations that makes much more sense once you've tasted it.

Is Champorado Breakfast or Dessert?

Both!

In the Philippines, champorado is traditionally associated with breakfast and merienda, but its rich chocolate flavour also makes it feel perfectly at home as a dessert.

That's part of its appeal.

A warm bowl can be breakfast on a cold morning, an afternoon comfort food or an after-dinner chocolate treat.

Is Champorado Vegan?

Traditional champorado isn't necessarily vegan because it may be served with dairy milk or condensed milk.

However, it's very easy to create a plant-based version.

Siocolat's version uses plant-based ingredients, giving people looking for vegan champorado in the UK another way to discover this Filipino favourite.

Discover Filipino Flavours with Siocolat

Champorado represents exactly what inspires us at Siocolat: heritage, flavour and reinvention.

We're passionate about introducing Filipino and Southeast Asian flavours to a wider UK audience, from the comforting chocolate richness of champorado to colourful ube and matcha-inspired creations.

These flavours may be familiar childhood favourites to some of our customers and completely new discoveries to others.

Either way, they're meant to be enjoyed.

Try Siocolat Chocolate Rice Porridge

If you've never tasted champorado before, Siocolat's Vegan Friendly No Added Sugar Chocolate Rice Porridge is an easy introduction to this Filipino classic.

And if you already grew up eating champorado?

We hope that first chocolatey spoonful brings back a few memories of home.

Discover Filipino-inspired comfort food with Siocolat — bold flavours, plant-based ingredients and no added sugar.