• What makes a cup of coffee special?
• Coffee please, but make it personal
• Sourcing is not the end of the story
• Growing appreciation for Filipino coffee

I drink coffee every day, though I wouldn’t call myself a coffee lover.  

When I was growing up, I thought coffee was simply a part of life. I remember trying to buy instant coffee at the school cafeteria, only to be told that coffee wasn’t for high schoolers. Why not? To me, coffee was as essential as pen and paper.  

But coffee isn’t just a personal pick-me-up. To farmers, roasters, café owners and baristas, it’s a source of income. To the Philippines, it’s a crop that requires greater attention and support to reach its full potential. Just this February, the Department of Agriculture announced the creation of the Coffee Industry Development Office to boost local production of the crop. 

The seeds for a thriving coffee farming industry are already here. Located in the Bean Belt, the Philippines is among the best places on earth to grow coffee. For one, our country can grow the four commercially viable coffee types: Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa. 

In 2025, we used 124,982 hectares for planting or harvesting coffee. 84,839,827 trees in the Philippines grew coffee cherries that same year, producing 35,645 metric tons of green coffee beans after processing. The figures look impressive, but we still drink more coffee than we produce. 

While Filipino consumers have plenty of coffee sources to choose from, Filipino coffee farmers may not have the same breadth of options for their livelihood.  

What Makes a Cup of Coffee “Special”? 

Like many casual coffee drinkers, I thought coffee was just coffee. I knew there were different types of beans, roasts and brews, but none of that mattered much to me. As long as it woke me up in the morning and got me through the day, I was generally fine with any kind of coffee. 

But then I learned that specialty coffee isn’t just a marketing label. It’s actually a grade that farmers work hard to earn for their beans. The story of specialty coffee begins far from the café we visit or the cup that we buy.  

Louiel Jay Concepcion, product specialist at micro-roastery Intuit Coffee, says that harvesting cherries for specialty coffee can involve handpicking and checking the quality of every cherry. 

“When you harvest coffee, it’s not like may machine na kukuha diyan (there’s a machine that will get it for you). It’s handpicked. Every single cherry is handpicked. And after handpicking those cherries, isa-isahin pa ‘yan (you go through them one by one). Kung okay pa yung quality (If the quality is still okay), that’s for specialty coffee. If nagflofloat siya in water (If the cherry floats in water), that’s for commercial.” 

Concepcion has witnessed this process firsthand. Earlier this year, he participated in a coffee harvest festival in Igbaras, Iloilo. The festival was organized by Pakiburak, a nonprofit for Filipino coffee farmers. They invited coffee enthusiasts from the public to join the farmers’ coffee harvest.  

According to Concepcion, harvesting coffee with the participants was made a little bit easier for the farmers even when it was only temporary.  

Mas mapapadali yung buhay ng farmers kasi maraming kamay yung maghaharvest.(The farmers’ jobs become easier since there are a lot of hands helping in the harvesting).

“Ganun ka-tedious yung process of coffee harvesting (That’s how tedious the process of coffee harvesting is),” he adds. “That’s why I really appreciate the coffee farmers. I’ve seen them do so muchfor their harvest.” 

But testing whether the harvested cherry sinks or floats in water is just an initial quality check.  

What separates specialty coffee from much of the coffee market (commercial coffee) is an evaluation based on Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) standards.  

Only certified expert tasters (known as Q graders) can score coffee according to specialty standards. First, a farmer’s green coffee beans must have no primary defects and only up to five secondary defects. The beans that pass the first round are roasted, ground and brewed following SCA-based tasting procedures.  

Second, Q graders score the brewed cups of coffee across 10 different attributes. A coffee farmer will only know for sure if their harvest is specialty-grade if they receive a score of at least 80 over 100 points. A score below that means that the beans are for commercial consumption. 

Filipino coffee farmers bring their beans to regional and national competitions for a chance to have their beans recognized as specialty-grade. At the annual Philippine Coffee Quality Competition(PCQC), some farmers even gain buyers for their top-tier beans. 

The PCQC has an auction where invited roasteries can bid for a Filipino farmer’s winning green coffee beans. Successful bidders first roast and then sell the roasted beans to consumers for home brewing or to specialty coffee cafés.  

Sourcing beans through the PCQC also gives roasteries other benefits beyond securing beans of specialty-grade quality. One is that the competition integrates coffee traceability. 

The origins of beans submitted to the PCQC can be verified through multi-elemental profiling. Sometimes, the coffee can even be traced to the harvest season. This matters because roasteries pay for a farmer’s specific batch of beans.  

For a roastery like Intuit Coffee aiming to ethically source local beans, the PCQC is a platform for them to pay farmers fairly. Concepcion remarks that the PCQC’s auction floor prices are usually set according to the grades of the farmers’ coffee beans.  

But for someone who isn’t picky about their coffee, it’s not the specialty-grade quality that makes a cup of coffee “special” to me.  

What makes me care are the people who make it special: the Filipino coffee farmers who strive to grow coffee that isn’t just “okay,” but the very best that our country can offer. 

Coffee Please, But Make It Personal  

“I’ll have a cup of Ginalyn Gonzalo PCQC 2024.”  

This is what ordering from Intuit Coffee is like. At the micro-roastery’s San Juan City coffee store, you’ll probably need to say the name of the farmer who grew the beans for your cup.  

You’re not just ordering Robusta. Neither are you just ordering Fine Robusta from Ilocos Sur. What you’re ordering is really Ginalyn Gonzalo‘s Fine Robusta from Ilocos Sur that won third best in the PCQC 2024 Robusta category.  

You’ll also find the names of other Filipino coffee farmers who joined the PCQC on the menu.  

Like Ginalyn Gonzalo, Mabini Ubuan and Marieta Lidem have grown Fine Robusta from Ilocos Sur. From Davao del Sur, Rogelio Gonzales and Marivic Dubria have grown Catimor Arabica. From that same region, Dione Ellaga has grown Yellow Bourbon Arabica and Josephine Libres has grown Typica Arabica. 

While serious coffee lovers may know what the coffee varieties mean, a casual drinker like me is mostly drawn to the names.  

Coffee isn’t just coffee anymore. It’s Ginalyn Gonzalo’s. It’s Dione Ellaga’s. It’s from a farmer who has tried to grow coffee of the highest quality, meticulously handpicked every bean just so I can have a really good cup.  

Putting farmers’ names on every variety matters to traceability. Traceability not only respects the work of coffee farmers, but also the uniqueness of the beans, emphasizes Concepcion. It protects the names of these competitive-level, specialty-grade coffee farmers from being maliciously used to market low-quality beans. In a similar manner, it protects the beans that each farmer has carefully cultivated from being sold under someone else’s name.  

“Hindi naman every year same yung beans ng farmer. Every year nagbabago yung cup profile kasi nagbabago din yung weather, nagbabago yung soil quality. So, nag-iiba yung lasa (It’s not like every year the farmer has the same beans. Every year the cup profile changes because the weather changes, the soil quality changes. So, the taste of the coffee changes).”  

But knowing their names is just one part of ethically sourcing beans from coffee farmers. Knowing their stories by taking the time to connect with them is another. Concepcion describes how Intuit Coffee business unit director, Ellaine Dela Cruz, approaches sourcing.  

“Pinupuntahan niya talaga yung pinagkukunan niya ng mga beans (She would really go to where she got the beans from),” he says. “For example, Intuit Coffee was buying Dione Ellaga’s beans through the PCQC for three years. Cars couldn’t enter the mountainous area where his coffee farm was located so she had to ride a motorcycle to get there.”

Concepcion adds that the micro-roastery maintains a close relationship with Dione Ellaga and their other coffee suppliers. Intuit Coffee has visited the Balutakay Coffee Farmers Association (BACOFA) in Davao del Sur as well as the Sigay Coffee Growers Cooperative and the San Elias Coffee Growers Association in Ilocos Sur. 

Sourcing is Not the End of the Story 

For specialty roasters, baristas and café owners, supporting the local coffee farming industry doesn’t end with ethically sourcing homegrown beans. They are also responsible for presenting the Filipino farmer’s beans to consumers in the best light. 

Mistakes in roasting can ruin the flavor profile of coffee made from high-quality beans, for example. To prevent this from happening, the temperature, the time and the cracking during the roasting process all have to be controlled. Concepcion says that maintaining this level of precision can even require the use of software.  

He notes that baristas, too, require precision in their work. In pour-over coffee, for example, the way of pouring may need to be adjusted by the minute.  

While some may manage roasters and baristas, café owners also have a role in deciding what story to tell to promote Philippine specialty coffee. 

Some cafés choose the technical route, going into the specifics of cupping attributes, bean varieties and preparation methods. Such cafés may cater to the hardcore coffee lovers who enjoy the science and art of serving specialty coffee.  

Others might opt for what could be described as the “common good” route. These cafés may home in on, instead of shy away from, the necessity of supporting Philippine coffee. This route can appeal to consumers who may not be that interested in coffee, but are willing to spend on something for the “common good.” 

However, the story of Philippine specialty coffee can be told in more diverse and nuanced ways. But whichever way that the café owner chooses or creates, hopefully they don’t forget how the story of the coffee they sell began: in a Filipino farmer’s hands. 

Growing Appreciation for Filipino Coffee  

I took coffee for granted before, not knowing about the work put into every homegrown bean, specialty roast and pour-over brew.  

Now I’m wondering how we can close the gap between our high demand for coffee and our appreciation for Filipino coffee. With farmers proving every year at the PCQC that they can meet specialty-grade standards, quality doesn’t seem to be the issue.  

Filipino coffee doesn’t suffer from a lack of stories either, though it could be that these stories aren’t told to their full potential or listened to with full attention. For example, what made me begin my local coffee appreciation journey was a micro-roastery’s story of labeling their beans by the farmers’ names.  

Maybe this is one way appreciation can grow: from a story that plants the first seeds of curiosity to a consumer who cultivates that curiosity by learning more about it. With every story that sparks a Filipino’s interest in local coffee, the gap between our coffee demand and our appreciation for our own coffee gets a little bit smaller.  

Of course, a lot more has to be done to actually increase domestic coffee production. Still, uncovering the stories that highlight the best aspects of Filipino coffee matters, whether we’re the storytellers or the listeners. 

*all photos courtesy of Intuit Coffee