The Popularity of Coffee Shops
in the Philippines
Dorothy Gail Almoite

          Throughout the years, coffee shops and cafés alike have become so much more than just a place to acquire a delicious brew. Since the first coffee shops were established, they have been used as social places to congregate and meeting points for the public. Alongside the development of coffee shops came the ‘coffee culture’, a set of traditions and rules regarding the way cafes are used, and the way these delicious brews are enjoyed. Coffee shops are everywhere, not just on our city’s high streets, but globally beloved. They offer an atmosphere that is warm and inviting, with a focus on the ambiance and aesthetic of the space as well as the services they offer, with some cafes housing multiple functions beyond the brew. In the Philippines, coffee plays an important role in Filipino culture. Regardless of your age, class, or location, it’s normal for early-rising Filipinos to start their day with a fortifying cup of coffee and toasted pandesal, or a classic full rice breakfast of rice and eggs paired with tuyo (dried fish), tocino (sweet-cured pork), or classic Filipino sausages called longganisa. 

 

         Traditional brewed coffee drinkers of our grandparents’ generation have a sentimental attachment to Liberica, locally known as Kapeng Barako. Younger generations and coffee lovers now enjoy Second Wave and Third Wave coffee shops, which have become an important “third space” for many people, whose lives consist of work and home, or work and school. Coffee is not endemic to the Philippines. The first coffee beans, Liberica beans, were brought over to the Philippines in 1740 by two Spanish Franciscan friars and planted in the cool, elevated plantations of Lipa, Batangas. This marked the beginning of what historians call a golden era for Philippine coffee – a period that lasted for almost 150 years. The interest in Philippine coffee experienced a resurgence in the early 1990s, when enterprising coffee businesses banded together to relaunch Kapeng Barako and promote many small groups of Philippine coffee producers who are spread out in the Calabarzon Region, the Cordilleras, and many parts of northern and southern Mindanao. The arrival of Seattle’s coffee brands, notably Starbucks and Seattle’s Best, and other major coffee shop brands in the Philippines (the so-called “Second Wave”) also helped spark interest in coffee origin and sustainability. In the last decade, many independent coffee shop owners have begun sourcing their beans directly from coffee cooperatives and do some – or a lot – of their own in-house bean roasting. Today, passionate Third Wave coffee drinkers are terroir-driven and are deeply interested in where the beans came from, what types of beans they are (Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa, or Liberica), and what flavor profile they might have (nutty, floral, fruity – or a combination of the three). By supporting certain coffee shops, you are directly supporting coffee cooperatives that these shop-owners and small distributors are championing – whether they’re from Sagada, Batangas, Sulu, and other emerging coffee producing areas in the Philippines.

        

         So, whenever you visit your favorite coffee place or looking for a new coffee type to sip, try asking your seller more about their latest batch of coffee beans, their origin, what flavor profile they have, and how best to brew it.

 

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