As chair of the Philippine Coffee Board, vice president of the ASEAN Coffee Federation, and board director of the International Women's Coffee Alliance, Pacita Juan travels the world speaking about Filipino and ASEAN specialty coffee. Photo credit: Philippine Coffee Board
What happens when a country drinks more coffee than it produces? Today, the Philippines consumes over 130,000 metric tons of coffee while producing only a fourth of that volume. It seems like planting more coffee trees would be the simple solution. However, cheaper coffee imports from neighboring ASEAN nations, such as Vietnam and Indonesia, challenge farmgate prices, leaving local farmers with little incentive to increase production. Instead of competing with commodity giants, the Philippine coffee industry has begun celebrating the country’s unique and diverse coffee heritage to move the industry forward.
Filipinos have been drinking coffee, not tea, since the Spanish came to conquer in the 1500s. Things might have been different had the British arrived instead. Then Muslims from Indonesia and Malaysia came through the southern islands, bringing their coffee rituals with them. The Americans, who took over in the 1800s, also brought a love of coffee, particularly instant coffee, in the mid-19th century. Currently, four out of five adults drink an average of 2.5 cups a day, proving that coffee is deeply rooted in Filipino culture.
Composed of over 7,000 large and small islands, the Philippines straddles the equator and has many mountainous regions suitable for coffee growing. This geographical advantage made the country a major coffee grower and, at one point in the 1700s, a major coffee exporter.
Over a hundred tribes of indigenous people living on the hilltops cultivate coffee and drink it daily. Since coffee grows in the highlands where the indigenous people live, they became coffee farmers to supply what they call “personal or household” consumption. Today, the industry faces the challenge of convincing these farmers to expand production beyond their personal needs.
The Ilocano people in the northern Philippines use candies called balikutsa, made from boiled sugarcane molasses, to add a natural caramel flavor to their coffee. Photo credit: Pacita Juan
The Launch of Liberica
The Philippines is one of the few countries that grows multiple coffee varieties. Aside from arabica and robusta, excelsa and liberica are also extensively cultivated. Popular among locals for its large fruits — some as big as grapes — liberica is grown by many households. Traditionally, liberica was reserved for the family’s use, while robusta (which has a higher export value) was sold.
Some producers would even mix all three together — since liberica grows at the same elevation as robusta and excelsa — and sell them to traders, obscuring the (larger) liberica and excelsa beans. Farmers would consolidate their harvests, keep a little for their own use, and sell the rest.
Sometime in 2000, a movement called Save the Barako (the local name for liberica) was launched to identify the trees and separate Barako from robusta. This campaign promised to pay a higher price for the disappearing Coffea liberica species.
Suddenly, farmers began distinguishing their liberica trees and investing in them to cash in on the prize money being offered. Meanwhile, foreign buyers also came to taste and study this different species, thereby creating demand for the larger bean. “Liberica prices shot up immediately 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.
Formerly pulped by hand, Benguet coffee cherries are now pulped by portable pulping machines at Benguet State University. Photo credit: Pacita Juan
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 interest 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 cultivars 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.
Philippine Coffee Board technical director and Q-processing professional Robert Francisco shows Benguet Igorot farmers how to check their pulped coffee cherries. Photo credit: Pacita Juan
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 evaluated Philippine 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 introduced by instant coffee producers, who brought in plantlets and cuttings from commodity stock in Luzon, Sulu’s heirloom robusta trees predate those and were likely introduced by ancestors sailing from Indonesia and Malaysia.
The flavor profiles from century-old trees were submitted for cupping and qualified as a new category: Fine Robusta. Even Indian coffee expert Sunalini Menon attests to the different 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 Philippine coffee a favorite among coffee connoisseurs, both local and foreign, who visit farms for the first time.
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
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 buyers 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.
Covid-19 also changed the habits of Filipino coffee drinkers. They started brewing at home, using equipment readily available online. This new habit made coffee trading easier, with hobbyists buying up a farmer’s crop rather than consolidating their harvest with others. Farmers can now trade directly, giving them greater freedom to refine cultivation and production methods. Direct trade and social media allow farmers to grow their businesses and attach their names to their coffee, making traceability the name of the game.
A Diverse and Thriving Coffee Market
There are now more coffee shops, especially the convenient kiosk model, pushing cups for less than two dollars. The Philippines has a large population of young call center agents working 24/7, and more regional brands of the kiosk model have arrived from Malaysia (Zu’s), Indonesia (Kopi Kenangan), and soon, maybe Luckin from China.
The Philippines’ own brand Pickup coffee has expanded overseas, even to Mexico, another coffee-producing country. “The development of coffee kiosks represents a major leap for the coffee industry in the Philippines,” Gustavo Palacios of Nutresa and OCA said. “The dynamism of these new players, along with evolving consumer preferences, will shape a new era for coffee consumption in the country.”
With over 400 locations, Pickup Coffee leveraged digital innovation, smart pricing, and local specialties to become the Philippines' fastest-growing coffee brand. Photo credit: Pickup Coffee
On the other end of the spectrum are the new coffee hobbyists and aficionados brewing their specialty cups at home or in independent cafés and roaster cafés. These specialty customers want to know the origin, elevation, process method, and flavor notes.
For the mass market, instant coffee and 3-in-1 coffee imports remain the gateway to caffeine. From here, consumers head to “ready to brew” coffee drips and then graduate to higher specialty coffee, often more expensive than a cocktail or a full dinner.
As a hundred million Filipinos continue to drink more coffee, self-sufficiency may remain a distant dream. In the meantime, farmers continue trying to meet the insatiable demands of a nation obsessed with coffee, not tea. Taking pride in the unique and diverse coffee heritage of the Philippines helps farmers earn more money, and celebrating local specialty coffees, such as liberica, heirloom arabica, and Fine Robusta, may be the key to encouraging the planting of more coffee trees.