KAPE MUNA TAYO

The first coffee trees were planted in Lipa, Batangas as early as 1740, as it was discovered that the Philippines is one of the few places in the world that can grow Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa beans. In the 1880s, a blight hit the world’s coffee-growing regions in Brazil, Java, Ceylon and South America, causing the price of coffee to skyrocket. As the decade wore in, the the Philippines ended up as the only source of coffee in the world, and Lipa — where 94% of all coffee exports were consolidated — became ridiculously rich. The large mansions that dot the city were erected by these coffee barons, who bought all their furnishings from Vienna, Paris and Berlin.

There are numerous crazy stories about the wealth from those days, such as how servants would be hired to clean large sacksful of silver coins on these grand balconies to make sure the coins did not get moldy, or how young bachelors would play a party game involving the tossing of diamond rings into the darkness and then searching for them by lighting up bank notes. Sadly, the party would end for the residents of Vilma’s city, as the coffee blight would hit the Philippines in 1889, bringing an abrupt end to the country’s coffee growing past.

Despite growing some of the world’s best coffee, Filipinos never acquired a taste for high quality brew. Even in Batangas, where coffee has been grown the longest, people just drank whatever cheap coffee was available for breakfast, and most disturbingly to many, as a sauce that you could pour over rice.

However, there is at least place in the country with a pre-Starbucks coffee culture: Sulu. Kahawa Sug or Sulu coffee is a Robusta strain that was planted in the 1860s for local consumption, rather than to serve the export markets. Similar to British high tea, Kahawa Sug is usually served with bangbang or a merienda platter consisting of rice cakes sweetened by coco sugar, similar to the kuih or kue that you can find in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. Kahawa Sug is served strong and black, with an extra empty glass, so the hot coffee can be poured back and forth to cool and release the best aroma and taste.

Unfortunately, there is no Mary Grace for Kahawa Sug just yet, and the taste for the real deal will require a trip to Dennis Coffee Garden in Zamboanga. So for the rest of us, there is little choice but to console ourselves with a trip to the nearest Starbucks, 711 or McCafe to get a taste of decent coffee, as well as to signal your desired status in society.