Celebrating homegrown pride

Homegrown brand Bo’s Coffee is 20 years old this year. In those 20 years, it has gone from a single kiosk in Cebu to the top homegrown coffee shop with 80 branches all over the Philippines. More than just celebrating Philippine coffee beans—90 percent of Bo’s premium coffee beans are sourced locally from Sagada, Benguet, Bukidnon, Cotabato and Davao to benefit local farmers—Bo’s Coffee has become a platform for celebrating homegrown pride.

The recent Bo’s Coffeechella event at the Garden Bloc of Cebu IT Park was a whole-day celebration of local enterprises, art, music and of course, coffee. A P100 ticket included entrance to the event, free-flowing coffee all day, a chocolate chip cookie and a Malagos dark chocolate bar. Over 3,000 guests enjoyed Coffeechella’s well-planned activities, which included the best of what local ingenuity has to offer. Start-ups had a chance to show off and sell their hand painted and handmade merchandise. Create Cebu and Ubec Crew collaborated for an outdoor art exhibit and live mural painting. There was a talk with Bo’s Coffee founder and chief executive officer Steve Benitez along with other visionaries from Cebu and Manila. Many sat on the grass listening to music by local acts from Cebuano label 22 Tango.

The event was supposed to end at 9 p.m. but lasted well past that with the crowd still enjoying the booths and the music. I hope Mr. Benitez and his team will make this an annual effort to put the spotlight on local talents. Coffeechella is the type of event that Cebu should have more of, celebrating and supporting homegrown brands that contribute to social progress and nation-building.

PARTNERS. Bo’s Coffee’s Filipino social enterprise partners include Anthill, Tsaa Laya, Gouache, Obrano, Bayani Brew, Theo and Philo, Spud Buds and Habi. Most of them flew from Manila to join this event.

ART. Partnering with Create Cebu, the outdoor exhibit Grounded was born which included the artworks of Spill Time Attack artists, a 60-hour contest which had coffee spills as its main focal point. Over 10 budding Cebuano artists joined Grounded and 25...

COFFEECHELLA was the first time for the Ubec Crew to do a live painting session with some of the best graffiti artists in Cebu in one place and working on one artwork.

FELLOWSHIP. Dinner on site for the media partners from Manila and Cebu, as well as the Filipino enterprises.

SESSION. Participants raise their cups at the end of the Coffee Cup Painting session where over 50 students from five schools joined.

HISTORY. The Coffee exhibit showed the history of coffee in the Philippines, and one of its main advocates, Bo’s Coffee. For sale are these oneyear-old coffee seedlings from Tuburan which was manned by the People’s Organization themselves.

MUSIC. 22 Tango artists including Martina San Diego, Lourdes Maglinte, Vincent Eco, Wonggoys, Mary Anchit and the Mother Folker serenaded the Coffeechella crowd until midnight.

EDUCATION. With coffee, the smell comes before the taste, as a participant of the Coffee Appreciation session learns from the baristas.

HEAD. Ivy Benatiro, the vice president for operations for Bo’s Coffee, talks about what Coffeechella can offer and how each booth represents the Bo’s Coffee brand.