Philippines Benguet Arabica Coffee

A highland arabica from Benguet, in the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon. Grown mostly on small farms, it tastes of brown sugar, mango and cocoa with a cedar finish. Brewed in a French press at 93°C.

Origin & Story

Benguet is a mountain province in the Cordillera of northern Luzon, and its coffee has a story with a boom and a bust in it. Arabica arrived in 1875, when a Spanish military governor planted it in government gardens in the lowlands. In 1877 a later governor, Enrique Oraa, moved seedlings up the mountains and handed them out to Igorot communities.

It was not a gentle introduction. In 1881 the Spanish authorities forced villages to grow coffee, and some communities destroyed their plantations in protest. Still, coffee spread, and by the late 1880s and 1890s the Cordillera was shipping as much as 16 million pounds a year. Then in 1899 coffee rust struck, and by 1917 annual exports had collapsed to around 3,000 pounds.

Coffee came back slowly, grown mostly by Igorot farmers on small plots, much of it Typica, an old variety suited to the mountains. Production has risen steadily since 2010, and in 2016 the country's first shared coffee-processing facility and arabica cupping laboratory opened at Benguet State University. Benguet coffee is also listed in the Slow Food Ark of Taste, a catalogue of endangered heritage foods.

Farms lie in upland towns such as Atok, La Trinidad, Tuba, Tublay and Kibungan, well above a thousand meters, where cloud and mist keep the air cool.

In the cup it is sweet and comfortable, with brown sugar and mango, cocoa and a cedar note. A French press suits it: steep 14.4 g of medium-coarse coffee in 240 ml of water at 93°C for four minutes.

Reading the Flavor Profile

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