Photo by Kyla Principio

“It’s an enriching coffee tour experience.”

“Coffee and friends make the perfect blend.”

“It made me appreciate every cup of coffee even more.”

“I wish there’s another one.”

The tour was only for a day. With comments like these, it can be said that the effect lasted beyond a day. In fact, just a few minutes after happy faces and coffee photos were posted on Facebook, it elicited immediate requests from the public that the Philippine Coffee Board, Inc. (PCBI) organized another coffee tour after three months!

PH CAFEEE: BEGINNING AND ESSENCE
The coffee tour that got a lot of buzz on social media is the brainchild of Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary Alma Rita Jimenez and PCBI President and Co-Chair Pacita Juan.

Through a continuing education for tour guides, the participants were given an in-depth look into some of the country’s sustainable industries like coffee. Thus, 19 accredited tour guides from Region 4A and NCR were part of the Philippine Coffee Activity For Earning, Education, and Enjoyment Program (PH CAFEEE) on November 22, 2017.

The coffee tour started with a morning briefing at the Department of Tourism office in Makati, where the tour guides were also given copies of The Ultimate Coffee Guide. Then, they got on board a coaster headed to Cavite and Tagaytay, where they learned about coffee from farm to cup. With them was PCBI Executive Director Robert Francisco, who shared his knowledge about Philippine coffee.

COFFEE AND MORE
The first stop and Gourmet Farms, where the tour guides were welcomed by Director Len Reyes. While he gave a brief background of how their 30-year-old business started and invited them to go around the shop to check out their various products, guests were served coffee buns, cookies, and a warm cup of coffee.

After they had their fill, they explored the 11-hectare estate and witnessed how Gourmet Farms stores, roasts, and packs its coffees. The cool breeze, the surrounding organic greens, and the aromatic smell of coffee left a good impression on the tour guides who went back to the store and shopped for more.

The next destination was the Nurture Wellness Village. The coaster passed by a few coffee trees that were beginning to bloom on the way to this healthy sanctuary. As the tour guides alighted from the coaster, they were given fresh pandan juice as they took photos and videos of the dancers wearing straw hats and in Filipiniana attire.

Geng Eclarinal of Nurture Farmacy gave a background on the company’s philosophy. The herb and vegetable gardens were just as Instagrammable as the first destination, with quotes that reminded why health and wellness matters. The tour guides were amazed to see a demonstration of a coffee scrub, one of Nurture Wellness Village’s spa offerings.

Who wants to try coffee scrub? One of the highlights of the tour was a demonstration of this spa offering at the Nurture Wellness Village.

Across a quaint spot where a carabao looked lovely with flowers on its head, the staff had set up demonstrations of local arts and crafts like weaving, kite making, and forming a ball using coconut leaves. This showcase of culture continued with a demonstration of Old School coffee grinding and roasting. The tour guides were then treated to a coffee-themed healthy lunch.

Nurture Wellness Village owner Cathy Turvil explained their company philosophy: holistic, quality, proudly Filipino, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. She then proudly introduced her team and invited everyone to dance for wellness.

“Our staff of 150 all belong here in our barangay,” she revealed. Turvil and her husband worked together to equip them with the needed skills until Nurture Wellness Village garnered their well-deserved Trip Advisor’s Certificate of Excellence for three consecutive years!

From Silang to Tagaytay, the tour guides” last stop was in Amadeo. Known as the coffee capital of the Philippines, its rich coffee history harks back to the Spanish era. After all, the town was named after King Amadeo of Spain. The staff of Cafe Amadeo gave a brief yet detailed history, showed them the facilities of the coffee shop, as well as the famous Pahimis Blend.

Pahimis is their local term for giving thanks. In the olden times, it was the coffee farmers’ tradition to share their last can of coffee harvest as a sign of thanksgiving. They believed that it would bring them luck in their next harvest. The tour guides also learned that the annual Pahimis Festival is celebrated in April, in an effort to boost the town’s agri-business and eco-tourism.

The coffee tour in Luzon was a good way to mark the start of the partnership between the DOT and PCBI. Plans are already in place for the Visayas and Mindanao leg.

Don’t just take our word for it, though. Like coffee, it’s an experience that one needs to make time for. Beyond the caffeine fix, it’s a tour that will make you feel proud of our coffee heritage.

Photos by Keith Dador

A TRIP TO THE COFFEE SOURCE. I noticed that Kapeng Barako has been out of stock in our neighborhood grocery store since New Year. I wondered what’s taking the delay to replenish the grocery shelves with ground coffee. Could be that stores were hoarding their stocks in anticipation of the new tax reform? But I couldn’t wait any longer.

The night critters were still chirping in darkness and the air was viciously cold when we left home for a road trip to find freshly ground coffee in Cavite’s uplands. A light drizzle peppered the windshield when we passed by Imus. Mists began to disperse over the fields in Silang. Tagaytay began to reveal its ridge with the breathtaking Taal Volcano in the morning light. A few more turns on sloping roads, we arrived in the town of Amadeo.

AMADEO, A PRINCELY TOWN. A sign greeted us to the Coffee Town, a fitting welcome title since the town folks of Amadeo has been into coffee farming since the 1880s. Its early settlers found the sloping terrain, volcanic soil, and the all-year round invigorating nip that is often associated with the Christmas season perfect for high altitude crops like coffee.

Amadeo was known as Sitio Masilaw for the abudant dapdap trees in the area that once bloomed with glaring red flowers. It was Governor-General Rafael de Izquierdo who renamed the town as Amadeo in honor of Prince Amadeo Fernando Maria of Savoy, the second son of  the reigning Spanish monarch of that time. During the Philippine Revolution, the town was given a sobriquet as May Pagibig.

ECHOFARM. From Amadeo’s town proper, we were led to ECHOfarm, a vast plantation that practices and promotes sustainable living through organic farming. The farmers here apply vermicasting into their farming method to produce vegetables and crops that are safe and healthy to eat because they are free from harmful chemicals and pesticide residues.

The sprawling ECHOfarm is owned by Chit Juan and has been supplying organically-grown produce to the popular ECHOstore.

KAPENG BARAKO ORCHARD. In between a pineapple plantation and the organic farm is a kapeng barako orchard. Lipa in Batangas has been traditionally known for farming liberica coffee beans and historically famous from the years 1886 to 1888 as the world’s only supplier of coffee. During that period, this Batangas town became a national sensation for its wealth and the envy of other towns in the country. The liberica coffee bean variety got its local name as barako because it was said that wild boars were found by coffee farmers eating the beans from its tree.

Harvesting coffee beans at the EchoFarm is part of the manual labor of its farmers. Ernesto Sales with wife Marvic showed us how freshly picked liberica beans are sorted and dried under the sun. Liberica is the biggest of all the coffee bean varieties and can take up to 40 days to dry under the sun because of its very thick pulp. EchoFarm exclusively grows liberica beans. Traditionally, Amadeo has been growing the arabica variety locally called Kapeng Tagalog.

PAHIMIS BLEND. From the EchoFarm, we were brought to Cafe Amadeo for a morning snack and to observe the coffee roasting method. Cafe Amadeo produces the pahimis blend, a combination of arabica, excelsa and robusta varieties that are all grown in coffee farms of Amadeo.

Guided by the aroma of roasting coffee, we followed the trail into the factory where dried and de-stoned coffee beans are roasted, poured into the grinder, packed and sealed as Cafe Amadeo’s Pahimis Blend.

EPILOGUE: THANK GOD FOR COFFEE.  I had my first taste of coffee at age eight. It was with pad de sal soaked in coffee. Fifteen years later, living by myself, ground kapeng barako beans has become part of the grocery list.

The smell of freshly brewed coffee has become the signature aroma for our home. I like serving coffee when friends come by. I like drinking coffee while having a conversation and when writing. When the caffeine wears off, it’s easy to brew another pot of unlimited happiness we got straight from a coffee farm. Thank God for coffee.