STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 45 Formerly pulped by hand, Benguet coffee cherries are now pulped by portable pulping machines at Benguet State University. Photo credit: Pacita Juan Founded by Rosario Juan who works closely with the Philippine Coffee Board, Commune Coffee proudly serves 100% local coffees from the Philippines. Photo credit: Josh Eleazor mediately after we launched the campaign in Cavite," says Dr. Alejandro Mojica, author of the book, BARAKO: The Big Bean. Known throughout the province as the Barako King, Dr. Mojica expanded his research by acquiring Barako seedlings from across the country to build a germplasm collection at Cavite State University, where he was head of research at the time. "People rediscovered Barako and its unique taste," Dr. Mojica continues. Twenty years after the campaign was launched, many more Barako trees were planted. Liberica is now included in cupping sessions and tasting competitions, which have sparked the in- terest of many new coffee drinkers. It now commands a price similar to that of arabica, leaving robusta behind. Ancient Arabica Trees Meantime, in the highlands of Benguet, many ancient culti- vars of C. arabica were identified by Benguet State University: Bourbon, Typica, San Ramon, and Mondo Novo. These grow throughout the Cordillera, side by side with pine and other local hardwoods at elevations of 1,300-1,600 meters above sea level. The Igorots, the region's indigenous people, process these old varieties in their own unique way: gathering ripe cherries, soaking them, and depulping them by hand. After drying the beans (which takes many weeks on the misty mountain tops), they pan-roast the green coffee until it's ready to drink. Today, Benguet coffee is known for its fragrant aroma and mild flavor, akin to Central American flavor profiles. Domestic Demand Grows for Specialty Coffee and Fine Robusta In 2016, a group from the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) evalu- ated Filipino coffees and found that even robusta plants had heirloom varieties notable for their distinct flavor profiles. The southern island of Sulu contains robusta trees that are over a hundred years old. Although the area has many varieties intro- duced by instant coffee producers, who brought in plantlets and cuttings from commodity stock in Luzon, Sulu's heirloom ro- busta trees predate those and were likely introduced by ances- tors sailing from Indonesia and Malaysia. The flavor profiles from century-old trees were submit- ted for cupping and qualified as a new category: Fine Robusta. Even Indian coffee expert Sunalini Menon attests to the differ- ent taste profile of Sulu robusta. "You need to taste Philippine robusta," Menon said in a recent interview on Featr media. "It has a unique flavor profile I have not tasted in other origins." The Philippines, though today a net importer of coffee from Vietnam and Indonesia (about 100,000 metric tons in total and growing), has developed specialty grades from its native coffee varieties, making local coffee prices higher than the commodity- grade imports. Local pride in anything Filipino also makes Phil- ippine coffee a favorite among coffee connoisseurs, both local and foreign, who visit farms for the first time. Social media also helps farmers get easily traced by direct buyers, making good local coffee accessible even when priced fairly or higher than the market. The Philippines is one of the top Facebook users in the world, providing farmers and buy- ers with a platform for trade. Farmers now make their own Facebook profiles, and coffee groups are organized by region, making it easy to find a farmer and buy their coffee on social media. Coffee Home Brewers, a Facebook page born during the pandemic lockdown, allows farmers and home roasters to make direct trades.

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