That’s Bea Misa and Rob Crisostomo of “ritual”, a tiny but wonderful gem of a shop located at The Collective (a group of interesting shops, cafes, bars, etc. on Malugay Street near Buendia Ave in Makati). The shop seeks to market eco-friendly products, fair-trade items, sourced directly from producers around the country. I LOVE this shop. I first visited several months ago late one evening, and didn’t have my camera with me, so I returned with camera recently to snap some shots and feature the shop on the blog. The shop is sparse, yet appealing; the inventory is, well, light in volume but totally interesting in concept and presentation. It just so happened when Mrs. MM and I passed by recently, the proprietors were on the premises, and they explained what they were trying to do…
They had me at “finest local products, sourced where they were made”… I was smitten by this chunky rock salt from General Santos that was iodine free, and great for using as a base for cooking things like steaks or maybe even fish. At PHP100 a kilo, their mark-ups are extremely reasonable, and this makes great local products totally accessible for city folks.
They also had a WONDERFUL and incredibly fragrant light muscovado sugar that “Sister” would go nuts over, the perfect and secret ingredient for her fruitcakes and other baked goods. At PHP100 a kilo, I also thought this was very reasonably priced. The fragrance of the muscovado was so intoxicating that I stuck my head into the bin of sugar and inhaled deeply several times… :) All the products are marked with their province of origin and you can bring your own containers if you want to buy in bulk and eschew the use of plastic bags.
The store has an interesting array of environmentally friendly household cleaning products, personal care products, soaps, bottled pickles and fish sauces, a few carefully edited items for the home made from native materials, baskets, etc.
Some of the rather colorful soaps on offer.
Bottled items great for gifts/pasalubongs and some batidors/batirols for making hot chocolate.
Ritual doesn’t serve any food yet, but plans are afoot, so for now, sit down and relax with some “fair-trade” coffee or some refreshing coolers.
Bea and Rob offered us these wonderful juice sodas made with Pelligrino sparkling water and dalandan juice and hibiscus/basil concentrate made from scratch. The hibiscus/basil drink was wonderful, beautifully flavored and very refreshing. It was nice to sit and chat with these young, idealistic and socially aware entrepreneurs. I noticed when they gave me their card that Bea must be one of my relatively active readers and commenters and when I mentioned this, turns out it was indeed her… So we spent a few minutes discussing their sources of food and products, the challenges of starting a business, and the mutual hope that folks start to pay more attention to what they are consuming and where it comes from. If all of the readers of Marketmanila made an effort to shift just 2% more of their food budget to local and artisanally produced items it would go a long way towards encouraging farmers, small producers, etc. Kudos to Bea and Rob for their efforts to bring consumers great local products at great prices… I think Bea and Rob also have a stall at the Sunday Legazpi market but the small shop “ritual” is worth a visit or two or three… :)
ritual
The Collective
7274 Malugay Street
San Antonio, Makati
Tel. 4004326
info@ritualshop.com
33 Responses
When I come home I would love to visit this store. Maybe meanwhile, I could recommend it to my ralatives and friends there. Good luck to the owners of Ritual! I miss the muscovado sugar!
Congratulations Bea and Rob ! We need more people like you !
Was this the store featured in Time Magazine last year?
don, yes, they were featured in Time Magazine. :)
Cool! If I manage to get a car & driver when I visit Manila next month, I might just go and check their shop out. I’m not exactly sure where Malugay is, but if it’s off Buendia I would guess that it’s not within walking distance of Greenbelt, huh? I’ll be staying New World, but will be entirely dependent on my friends for transportation unless I can get the aforementioned car and driver. Anway, printing this specific post out now. :-)
thanks Mr. MM for featuring great finds like ritual. i’m attracted to visit and buy their products.
Love to read about idealism in action. It is great to read about using Fair Trade anything… I am all for using locally produced items, re-purposing anything to be eco friendly. That is what the Philippines need so badly … being more eco-concious … so KUDOS to Ritual and Bea and Rob. What an inspiration!
I hope they can provide a list of their current products on offer :)
Will visit this place :)
I will visit!
Yup kudos to this kind of young entrepreneur who care for the environment. Let’s support them!
Will visit the shop tomorrow:)
I’ve been Rob and Bea’s customer when Ritual was still called Tindahang Sakto. Thank you for featuring them Marketman. I hope more businesses are conducted as such.
i’ve read about them in TIME, and i was going to asked you if you know of it and what can say about them, and now i know :)….hopefully we can visit while we’re here…..
Lovely store and what a beautiful couple :) I look forward to visiting soon.
What an inspired idea and an amazing couple! I will drop by soon to buy a kilo of that salt. I also want to try to hibiscus/basil soda. Interesting!
Wow! I’m in love with this shop already. Himalayan salt is soooo expensive and coarse sea salt has disappeared from our palengkes for a long time now. I hope the soaps are affordable! I’m rushing over day soon! Thanks MM!
hmmm… pretty near my area! worth a look see! :)
Friedneurons, you can walk from the New World hotel to Malugay, walk down Makati Avenue towards Buendia, turn left, two (loooong) blocks later, you should see the intersection of Malugay and Buendia, turn right on Malugay and explore. If you get to Ayala Avenue, (you’ll see the post office) you’ve walked too far. If you go on a Saturday, you could hit Malugay then cross Buendia over to Salcedo Village and have some more goodies at the market.
Hm, fried neurons, can you manage to commute using the local jeepneys? Ritual is just 2 jeepney rides away. Just take the Evangelista/Pasay-bound jeeps from Arnaiz Ave just where New World is, hop off at Pasong Tamo, then take a Pasong Tamo/PRC bound jeep then hop off at Malugay St (your landmark is a large Petron station at the corner of Buendia & Pasong Tamo which also extends to Malugay, a one-way street going in the direction of the Makati Fire Station). Just walk in the opposite direction (less than 5 mins), going towards The Collective.
Hi Mila, I think the section of Malugay you described is where JT’s Manukan and the Korean sauna is located? Before I forget, fried neurons, drop by the Fuji Mart on Arnaiz and get a free copy of Primer, a Japanese travel/lifestyle newsletter with an accurate/detailed map of the Makati area (just in case you get lost, hehehe)
So glad you featured ritual here! I love this store and its owners! :) I have been buying their products (the soaps) since Legazpi market days and get their black rice (C loves this), sea salt, Victoria laundry detergent, and dark muscovado (love the dark muscovado and can’t wait to use it in baking!). This is also were I finally found a place where I can regularly score real sukang Ilocos (awesome for adobo and as a dipping sauce for any longanisa). Their stuff also makes nice gifts. I love their locally sourced products as well as their attitude about packaging (minimizing the use of). Great people and a great little shop :)
I have tried their citronella spray and it really works vs. the ants and insects in the kitchen! Their soaps are great too!
Thanks for this post. The Ritual Shop is in Mercato Centrale every Saturday, 6am til 2pm.
Congrats Rob & Bea!
This is my wife’s favorite site….and ritual seems to interest me….i’ll give it a visit when i get home this december…
i saw this beautiful couple last december at their stall at mercato central! i thought their celebrity of some sort. nice produce btw!
hey mr and mrs mm, thanks for stopping by! we enjoyed the surprise and the chat. maybe soon will gather you enough kurakding/kurakdot for a small side dish :D
I went to The Collective at night when my friend invited me over to watch a concert at B side, little did i know that i was actually at “The Collective” since all the stores were closed at night. I kept on saying to my friends that i guess this is the place where there’s a shop called “ritual” ( i knew about ritual because of some thread and i was actually planning to visit the shop) On the next day I went to Cash n Carry and headed to The Collective to look for some nice buy. I went to Rituals and I was stunned by their products. I actually bought two pairs of “tongue cleaner ” which is made of stainless steel (i was just curious) and “ear cleaner”. Those were the best buy i had at the Rituals. :)
ah-too bad they don’t have a website. :( I’d love to support Fair-trade Filipino products. I like the merchandising in the shop too, a more spartan version of Lush! What a great idea.
MaryAnne, I think they do have a website if you google them…
yes they have a website.. its posted on one of the pictures above.. on the picture of their menu.. https://www.ritualshop.com/ here you go..
Hi Mr. MM, may I use just one of your photos on this post for a class presentation that includes Ritual? :) My group did a small study on altruists for our MA Psychology class, and we interviewed Bea as one of our subjects. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any photos of the shop itself :( I’m pretty sure this would be fair use, and of course it’s not commercial in any way. But if you have any objections, please feel free to e-mail me. :) Thanks very much!
(re previous comment) oops sorry never mind! we’ll try to get our own photos instead :) thanks anyway!