Waking up the ‘sleepy’ PH coffee business

Five individuals who helped perk up the Philippines’ once listless coffee industry were presented the First Coffee Cup of Distinction Awards.

In simple ceremonies at Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City, the Philippine Coffee Board, Inc. (PCBI) marked its 16th year by honoring Ernest de Leon Escaler of Gourmet’s Coffee, Jose Mercado of Café de Lipa, Dr. Amado Silva of Siete Baracos, Enrile and Evelyn Asuncion of Evrile Enterprises and Silca Coffee Roasting Company, and Professor Benjamin Dimas, founder of Benguet State University’s (BSU) Institute of Highland Farming Systems and Agroforestry.

Escaler, founder and president of one of the country’s biggest coffee traders, has been working to make the local bean at par with or even better than the world’s best.

The entrepreneur who considers coffee “part of my lifestyle,” pioneered the revival of the Philippine coffee export business.

Gourmet’s Coffee set up the first commercial roasting facility in the country and now produces various coffee products.

Mercado was to coffee born, his family having drawn their livelihood from the farming and trading of the bean. He would tell people he was born in a coffee sack under a coffee tree. Mercado upholds both the family legacy and his birthplace’s history. Lipa City, where Café de Lipa is based, is where the seed of the country’s coffee industry was literally planted.

Mercado wants to put the “zest” back in the country’s coffee production and agriculture, in general.

Coffee not only paid for the education of Silva and his siblings but also paid for his six sons’ way through college. His product’s brand name apparently comes from having seven men in the family—he and his sons. “Barako” (loosely translates to “tough guy” or “macho” in Batangueño) is the local name for liberica, which has a robust taste and scent and the main variety grown in Batangas.

Silva expressed will-