COFFEE AMONG THE CLOUDS
KALUGONG MEANS “HAT” IN ILOCANO. A MOUNTAIN by that name? From the provincial capitol in La Trinidad, Benguet she points to a mountaintop high up in the fog.
“There’s my café,” she beams with pride and you almost don’t believe her. So the following week, we decided to take the challenge of reaching Mount Kalugong before the rains come. It rains almost daily now in Baguio and trekking up to the kape-an (coffee shop on Ilocano) is a ride and a walk through a road filled with old tires that Susan Pablo calls her “tire path.” After driving up a two-way street that’s only a few meters wide, we finally reach the top, the highest point at which a car would be able to park.
And then we walk on tires and stones to get to the top – and gasp “Oh my God!” The rock formations are straight out of the Coron, Palawan limestones or Ha Long in Vietnam, but up here in Baguio? The doubting Thomas in me reaches out to feel the rocks; yes, they’re real and not a movie set. Elders say that La Trinidad used to be under water.
I almost crawl up the last few tire steps, still in awe, and finally with a very steep rise of the succeeding tires you come to the building that houses Susan’s dream coffee house.
The Mount Kalugong Café, offers a scenic view of La Trinidad Valley that will take your breath away. It’s a 270-degree view, not just 180 degrees.
In the rear of the cafe are ecolodges, huts made of nipa which are not electrified – just Nature and you. They are rented by eco-travelers who want to unplug with a book and soul-warming coffee. Susan used to be an OFW in London but when a relative got sick she decided to come home and take care of family matters.
Having been to London’s coffee houses during her five-year stay in the UK, she thought she may as well put up her dream cafe in her hometown; after all, coffee literally grows right in her backyard. Highgrown Arabica grows at 5,000 feet above sea level and this is what she has in Benguet. With her savings from her overseas gig, she started to prepare her dream cafe project.
To add yet another feather to her cap, she first took up a Q coffee
grader course, hurdled the Q coffee grading exams, a rigorous test that she passed with flying colors. She now has the title of the first Q grader in the Cordillera, an honor the community is proud of. She is also the first woman Q grader in Benguet and her Kape-an may even be the first third wave café in these parts. She brings honor and a lot of expertise to her local farming community so they can now taste and grade their coffee harvests.
For this year’s KP Cupping competition, Benguet farmers are looking to Susan to help them assess if their coffee entries stand a chance in the nationwide contest for Arabica and Robusta coffees. The winner may go to the Specialty Coffee Association show in Seattle in April and who knows, one of her neighbor-farmers may make it.
When you talk to Susan she may appear quite shy but she knows exactly what her café offers differently, as she adds finishing touches to the “still to be opened” kitchen area. Today, you can have a pour over V-60 or Kalita coffee brew, or a quick espresso – all in the foggy comforts of the kape-an in Mount Kalugong.
You can also try wearing a head basket (a vegetable basket that locals wear with a head strap) or try your hand at pounding rice or coffee with a wooden mortar and pestle or bayuhan.
You can feel the Igorot culture at the café, and this is what Susan wants to share with tourists and locals, too. Mount Kalugong Eco-village, as the complex is called, has the café, the eco-lodges and soon she will be serving all the local Benguet food she grew up with like pinikpikan and kini-ing or smoked pork and, of course, all the different ways of enjoying Benguet Arabica coffee.
Do something different the next time you go up to Baguio. Drive over to La Trinidad or take the bus going to Atok and Bontoc. At the Barangay Cruz area, trek up Mount Kalugong on a winding steep road, following all the tire markers… all the way up to 1,600 meters above sea level. You will come back a different person.
The sight is unbelievable and the coffee is magnificent. Stay the night maybe? Well, call Susan first, as she may be fully booked. Who knows how many people want to unplug and just enjoy the beauty of Nature?
Another caveat: if you have a heart problem or are over 60, make sure you’re fit to climb. If you manage the steep ascent, it will be well worth the effort.