Ilog Maria Honeybee Farm was one of the first brands I reviewed in this blog almost seven years ago. I remember someone gave my mom some Ilog Maria products at the start of her tree-hugging phase, so the next time we went to Tagaytay, we made a trip to the Ilog Maria farm in Silang Cavite.
I was amazed at the range of products available and how the Magsaysay family, the proprietors, made a conscious effort to be really one with nature, and not just talking the talk for the sake of marketing. Years later, it's nice to see that Ilog Maria has maintained its under the radar operations, preferring to stay small in an effort to maintain the quality of their products and, more importantly, to not tax the environment.
Ilog Maria may be all about living harmoniously with nature, but it was also one of the first brands to fully embrace technology, specifically, online shopping. I believe that I had my first taste of one-click shopping with Ilog Maria, ordering their liquid soap and honey shampoo, and then gleefully opening my box of products when it arrived a few days later. Clearly, Ilog Maria is to blame for my current love affair with online shopping:p
When I became pregnant, I made an effort to use natural products as much as possible and found myself back at the Ilog Maria website. I was pleasantly surprised to find a much prettier and more user friendly website than the clunky one I remembered using years ago.
The tabs are idiot-proof and the shop contains categories that will direct you to your product of choice in a heartbeat.
Take note though that the confirmation email is sometimes sent a few days after you submit your order form. This is because Ilog Maria is offline on weekends (to attend to customers in their shop) and closed on Mondays, so if your order comes during this time, you will have to wait for a few more days for a response.
Personally though, I don't mind the wait and I appreciate how the family is super hands-on with their operations and their efforts at keeping costs down, making them a refreshing change from the burly MNCs with their avowed mission to create megaconsumers to dump their over-hyped and over-priced products on.
I also found out that Liaa Magsaysay COO (child of owner) was friends with my brother, so she threw in a small tub of honey for free with my order which I used as spread for my morning toast. I've been adding grocery bought honey to my oatmeal these past few months, but the honey Liaa sent was not at all like what I've been using, as it had a sweet-tangy taste that went well with my buttered toast. Yummy!!
Payment options are quite limited though, with only BPI deposit and Gcash payments available for the buyer. Maybe in time Ilog Maria will at least offer Paypal payment options?
Regardless, I'm super glad that family enterprises like Ilog Maria Honeybee Farm still exist in our commodity obsessed world. We should all take our cue from the Magsaysay family and learn to take life slow, respecting nature and not abusing the bounty she has bestowed upon us.
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