Passion for the brew

MANILA, Philippines - Cafe Puro, Cafe Bueno and Cafe Excelente were the only coffee brands I knew in my childhood and I seldom had a chance to enjoy them as the only coffee we drank was “Kapeng Bigas.” Any branded coffee was a luxury. “Kapeng Bigas” was made by toasting rice grains till they were brown and then steeped in boiling water. Into my teens, I became aware of Nescafé and Blend 45 (45 choice coffee beans in a cup of Blend 45 said the jingle). Still, I was ignorant of the other brands and the varieties of coffee.

Coffee has been the world’s beverage of choice or addiction since the 15th century. Coffee was first cultivated in southern Arabia and has been actively drunk in Yemen, Ethiopia and Ottoman Turkey. Coffee was planted in the Philippines in the mid-1700’s. In March of 1971, Innovator Starbucks opened its first shop in Seattle, Washington but it wasn’t until two decades later that it started to expand. I remember looking forward to free Starbucks coffee at Portland airport every time I paid a visit to the business that me and my partner set up there. Starbucks is credited for making coffee a social lifestyle drink and for giving coffee drinkers a host of blends and flavors. Nowadays, coffee has become one of the most profitable commodities that coffee kiosks, bars and shops are found in the remotest regions of the world.

   I wasn’t hooked to coffee until I was in my 30s and got turned on to it during my European travels. It was there where I experienced the various blends and potencies like Espresso, Macchiato, Cappuccino and the like. Whenever in Paris, I would stay for hours at Fauchon at Place Madelein and smell or sample the freshly-roasted coffee beans elegantly displayed with the country of origin or type of blend proudly emblazoned in their individual jute sacks. It was like an aphrodisiac. Just the aroma of coffee beans perked me up. In fact, one of my practices nowadays is to put freshly-roasted beans in my bathroom to mask away all bad odors.

Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica is my all-time favorite. It is considered as one of the most exquisite and expensive kinds of coffee in the world. It has a heavenly taste, bitterness is almost absent and an aftertaste that leaves you craving for more. Like the name “Champagne,” which is a branding protected by the French government and cannot be used by any sparkling wine produced outside the Champagne region of France, Blue Mountain coffee is a globally registered, protected and certified mark of the Jamaican government and can only be used by coffee that is harvested and meticulously monitored from the blue mountain area nestled 7,500 feet above the Kingston area of Jamaica. The Japanese purchase 80 percent of the Blue Mountain coffee months before the beans are harvested. Only a few coffee shops in the Philippines have Blue Mountain coffee in their menu. I get my fix at UCC. A cup will set you back around P500. If it is too pricey for your pocket, try the Blue Mountain blend, which is a bit cheaper.

A few years ago, I became aware of a coffee type more expensive than Blue Mountain — Kopi Luwak — primarily harvested or should I say collected in the coffee plantations of Sumatra, Indonesia. A kilo costs at least $750. History says that back when Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch, the natives were forbidden to pick coffee beans for their consumption with violators being meted severe punishment. Some enterprising natives with coffee addictions discovered that the Asian Palm Civet that feasted on the coffee cherries (the coffee cherry contains the coffee bean) weren’t able to digest the whole bean and were eliminated in their droppings. They then gathered the droppings, separated the undigested coffee beans, cleaned them, then roasted and voila! Coffee tasting much better than regular. It would be decades later that coffee aficionados in the western world would elevate it to gourmet level. It was one of the highlights in the hit movie The Bucket List. Giving the coffee its unique flavor are the digestive enzymes of the Civet cat that interact with the coffee bean. We have a local version of Kopi Luwak called Kape Alamid. Alamid is the Tagalog moniker for the Asian Palm Civet. The coffee beans are on sale at specialty shops in Cavite and Tagaytay. Some high-end coffee shops in Metro Manila offer it in their menu. Most Kopi Luwak and Kape Alamid harvested nowadays don’t come from the wild but from dedicated farms. Because there is no regulation or monitoring of these coffees, a lot of fakes abound.

Comparing Kopi Luwak, Kape Alamid and Blue Mountain coffee, I’ll take Blue Mountain coffee anytime whenever available.

Currently, the Philippines has a very healthy coffee industry. Not only are we a major player in the worldwide coffee export industry but also a leader in the coffee shop world. Eighty percent of our harvested crop is the Robusta variety which giants like Nescafé use for their instant coffee product line. The Excelsa and Liberica variety, locally known as Kapeng Barako which has a very strong taste, makes up 17 percent (I love the Kapeng Barako blend that they serve at Hard Rock Café in Glorietta 3) and Arabica three percent. Arabica is the most aromatic and best tasting of the four and preferred by a lot of coffee drinkers like me. 

Recently, my son Silvester, who quit his high-paying job at Unilever Singapore to start a gourmet coffee shop on Broadway St. in Quezon City, convinced me to drink my Arabica coffee (which is the only coffee type he brews and blends) like a connoisseur without sugar or cream. He is an advocate of Arabica beans and a coffee purist. The first word he muttered when he was an infant was “coffee.” Years before he started his business Craft Coffee Workshop, he scoured the coffee plantations here abroad and went up to Sagada to seek quality Arabica coffee suppliers, experimented diligently on brews and attended coffee industry events and conventions around the world. Because of him, I now drink my Cappuccinos and Lattes sans sucre (without sugar). It’s healthier, especially now that I’m diabetic.