Monday, August 15, 2005
How do you like your coffee?
By Edwin G. Espejo
IN TURKEY, they say "coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love."
In Italy, they take their coffee seriously that drinking has become an art.
In France, the French while away their time in roadside cafès at any time of the day or night.
In Spain, all stores close shops during siestas to allow Castillans to sip their brews.
In the US, the Americans have so revolutionized the way coffee are being drank that inventing a cup that would keep your brew hot from the coffee shop to the workstation has become a challenge to one's ingenuity.
And the Arabs once had the monopoly of coffee trading, which, according to Café Amigo owner, Bunting Go, is the world's second most traded commodity--next only to oil.
So how do the Pinoys take their coffee?
All Filipino households have a kettle or two in their earthen stoves or spunky pantries at home.
But the art of coffee drinking has not caught up with the average Pinoy until the uppity and jazzy franchised coffee shops began sprouting in Metro Manila more than a decade ago.
Back in the 1970's, Cafè Adriatico in Malate was the closest that there is to today's Starbucks or the Davao-based Blu Grè signature coffee shops.
But even back then, coffee was just another fare in the menu of Cafè Adriatico.
Then, too, whenever one orders coffee in a restaurant, he or she is given a glass of instant coffee and evaporated milk for creamer.
Today, if you run into a coffee shop, you will get a snide remark if you order instant coffee. The waiter will even be amused if you can't get to properly pronounce the fares in the menu.
But the purest form of Pinoy coffee drinking have their origins in mountains of Davao City and in the lowlands of Batangas--home of the world famous barako coffee--many centuries ago.
It is amazing how many of today's cafè habitués take pride of having rounded up the country's best coffee shops. But few of them ever had the luxury and honor of being served freshly roasted and ground coffee beans straight from a wood-fired boiling kettle of our Lumads deep in the fog-covered misty mountains of their homes.
But of course, today's coffee drinkers couldn't have cared less how their brews are being intricately prepared and perfected over the centuries - except for the avid ones who know their brew.
The beans
Once described by monks as the "devil's drink", coffee is actually derived from a durable tree that yields a cherry-like fruit.
It is believed to have originated in Ethiopia.
Today, there are two popular coffee bean varieties - the Robusta and Arabica.
Robustas strive in areas below 3,000 feet and are known for its body and strength.
Arabicas, on the other hand, are grown in areas above 3,000 feet beyond sea level and are preferred for its distinctively strong and alluring aroma.
Most coffee manufacturers and coffee shops, however, blend their beans to get a strong heady flavor while retaining the sweet tangy aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans.
The distinct flavor and aroma of each coffee manufacturer depends on the blend and roasting.
Too much roasting will leave an acidic after taste in the tongue while to little will not yield the aroma and strength most coffee lovers love to trade for the their wives and husbands. Remember the "Coffee na lang dear" commercial?
Most would love to have their coffee brewed within days after they are roasted and ground.
And with the advent of espresso machines, the race for creating a niche and capturing a chunk of the growing market of coffee drinkers now depends on how one prepares the brew.
Cafè shop galore
In Gensan, the number of coffee lovers is growing by the day.
Three years ago, there were only three coffee shops in the city.
As of last week, Sun.Star has already counted eight with one more opening up soon at KCC Mall of Gensan.
The latest to open was Fagioli, located along J. Catolico Street within the Petron gas station compound. It is owned by Christine Rebusura.
The place, designed by a Fil-Canadian friend of its owner, offers the best coffee shop ambiance in town with water cascading down the glass panels in the interior. Its rest room will put to shame most of the city's old and nouveau rich residences. The pipe-in music, powered by Bose speaker systems, offers soothing mood for samba and reggae lovers.
The brew of the house is Caffè Fagiomalt, actually a cappuccino or mocha for the uninitiated. The place offers strictly coffee, juices and pastries. A nook for smokers is provided at the back of the moderately lit and generously spaced interior that could accommodate 25 people at a time. The house is full during Fridays and Saturdays between 7 to 10 pm. Unfortunately, for the wee-hour crowd, Fagioli closes at 11 in the evening. Prices are very competitive.
Sunset Cafè, located at the ground floor level of the left arcade building of East Asia Royale Hotel, is where you would like to hang around and order beer on the side.
Inside is literally the coolest place to do business and whisper sweet nothings to your dates with jazz music playing softly to your ears.
Owned by couples Tonyboy Veneracion and Petite (daughter of the late Exuferio Porras of Davao City), Sunset Cafè is one of the pioneers of coffee shops in the city. Perfect place to wind up your night after office hours and dinner anywhere else. But then why go to other places when it already offers lunch and dinner, too?
Too bad, Angel Nina, located just across the right wing of the hotel arcade has lost its coffee shop appeal as it has become more of a bar rather than a place to sip your brew.
Another favorite is Cafè Amigo along Quirino Street. First opened as an afterthought, so confessed Susan, wife of Bunting, it has became a favorite jaunt of "medreps" and businessmen eager to share their thoughts of the day or close out a deal.
Susan said it was her husband who was persisted to open the coffee shop. After all, they already had the Mister Donut franchise next door. Little did the couple realize that the place would be a hit.
"Sa akin, maligaya na ako if I hit 30 cups (a day) within three months of operation. I hit the target naman," Bunting said.
At present, the couple is rushing up an extension at the back of the well-lit but cramped shop where smokers would be more than welcomed.
Downtown is Orange Cafè just beside iBank. The place became an instant hit when it opened more than a year ago.
Its owner, Philip Teng is enterprising enough to change and add fares to their menu to keep the customers coming. Nice place to have lunch and coffee break.
Two coffee shops, actually three, are located at the Gaisano shopping mall complex - Port Café, Café Paulino and Uno Café.
Port Café is ran and operated by the Gaisanos. Regulars say it offers the cheapest meals among coffee shops in the city. Unfortunately, the place closes as soon as the mall complex calls it a day.
Just before going upstairs the theatre complex is Café Paulino or one could just go straight to Uno Café near Shakey's at the parking complex of the shopping mall.
Mark, husband to ABS-CBN's Pauline Maduramente, says conversation pieces among café habitués change quickly by the hours.
In the mornings, it is about home and physical fitness. Noons and mid-mornings, about office work. After dinners, it is about business deals and other personals. At wee hours, it as about women and men (so Pauline agrees).
But going back, how do you like your coffee, really?
For me, brewing my own is out of question. I still do not have the luxury of time to prepare the brew I would have wanted.
Espresso is too strong for me who scaled down coffee intake to, at the most, three cups a day (down from 12 to 15 cups some twenty years ago). I would prefer Café Americano boiling hot. To go along with it? A puff or two of my favorite cigarette and a good friend talk to.
How about you?
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(August 15, 2005 issue)
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