Philippine Coffee Has Finally Landed!
A lot of customers have reached out to us over the past several months asking when Philippine coffee will be back in stock, and we’re excited to announce that the latest harvest has finally arrived! We connected with Kalsada Coffee Company in 2018 and have been purchasing their coffee ever since. We have two offerings coming from Kalsada this year, and the first one up is the Natural Sitio Naguey.
The Sitio Naguey mill is situated in the mountain ranges of Benguet. Although it’s uncommon to have two mills very close to one another, it’s 800 meters away from the Sitio Belis mill. During Kalsada’s initial community consultations, the farmers said that it would take a lot of time to carry a bag of cherry across the rugged terrain to get to the Sitio Belis mill. This trek would make them less enthusiastic to sell their coffees to Kalsada Coffee. Coffee quality could also degrade if cherries are left in a bag for too long. In building Sitio Naguey, farmers are able put more focus on picking and sorting cherries with extra time that would normally be spent on hauling cherries. Farmers can then earn more and Kalsada receives better coffees.
Fresh picked cherries getting hauled to the mill. Photo by Gian Paolo Cheang
This region of Benguet primarily grows vegetables, but the community has been cultivating coffee since WWII. Farmers had been processing their coffee in different ways, using methods taught to them by their forefathers or other farmers who received training from various training institutions. In order to set standards, Kalsada coffee began training farmers together. While there was initially some resistance to changing from their old methods, Kalsada Coffee continues to pursue projects that will help farmers maintain consistency and continue to improve coffee quality. One project is in collaboration with the Peace and Equity Foundation, and they are working on implementing a rejuvenation and pruning project with several farm leaders. The goal of the project is to demonstrate proper pruning of old and unproductive trees to increase overall plant health and volume. This project will also adopt a 2-hectare demonstration farm in Sitio Naguey to implement different pruning methods and will become a technical training farm for the community.
Coffee cherries are sorted before being placed on raised drying beds. The coffees are agitated every hour, kept in sacks in the evening, and laid on the beds again in the morning. This meticulous process is repeated for 3-4 weeks until the coffee reaches a 10% moisture content. The coffee is then bagged to rest for 16 weeks before being hulled and sorted. Photo by Kalsada Coffee
This natural coffee is brought to you by 12 farmer families, and all of their hard work is evident in the cup. It tastes just as sweet and refreshingly fruity as it did last year. We hope you’ll agree!
To purchase a bag of Philippines Natural Sitio Naguey, click on this link:
