Dexter and Jessica: Cebu’s coffee couple

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu is a promising market for specialty cafes, as young couple Dexter and Jessica Chua finds success in the highly-competitive yet flourishing food and beverage business.

The Chua couple owns the Tazza Café and Patisserie, a business they started using their P2 million savings for 10 years, although Jessica had already started a home-based cake business under the trade name “Pastries by Jessica” before they decided to get married.

Although Dexter was needed in his family’s construction business, the couple decided to make specialty coffee their shared business, noting the lucrative market for this kind of offering.

Jessica, a medical technology graduate in Velez College, chose to make baking as her career, saying success can only be enjoyed in doing something one loves.

Recently, the husband-and-wife tandem opened their dainty coffee and dessert shop, a full-fledged café in Banilad Town Center, another specialty cafe destination for Cebu.

Their BTC outlet is one of the must-go places, especially for millennials and the elite market in Cebu, because of its homey and “Instagram-able” interior aesthetics.

Jessica earned her culinary credentials from the International Culinary Arts Academy Cebu, and apprenticed in Makati Shangri-La and later in the Hyatt Regency in Georgia, USA.

Two years after their wedding in 2012, the couple found a small spot along Wilson St. in Barangay Apas, Cebu City where they opened Tazza Café and Patisserie with the aim of bringing Jessica’s cake business to the next level.

“We were blessed to have loyal clients who have been with us since I started baking cakes. I can say that I have already been part of my clients’ milestones from the birthdays of their kids to debuts and other big occasions,” she said.

“The business grew fast that I can no longer accommodate pick-ups from the house so we felt that opening a shop would help us manage the business. Plus, Dexter suggested to pair our cakes and other pastries with coffee, and other food items, hence the birth of Tazza.”

The couple believes that with Cebu’s fast-expanding middle-class and increasing number of tourists, food and beverage business, including specialty cafes and restaurants, will continue to provide good business opportunities for everyone who wants to enter into entrepreneurship. —  JMD