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Cascara specialty coffee cellarGuides

Coffee, with context

Practical reading on brewing, processing and your palate.

Coffee processing methods, explained

Washed, natural, honey, anaerobic — what each one does to the cup, and why processing matters more than origin.

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The coffee palate quiz

A free coffee palate quiz. Eleven questions, one Cellar Identity, and a shortcut to coffee that fits your taste.

How to choose coffee beans

Palate first, process second, country last. A practical order for choosing coffee beans you will like.

Specialty vs commercial coffee

The line between them isn't marketing — it's the 80-point score. How specialty and commercial coffee differ from farm to cup, and how to tell which one you're buying.

Is specialty coffee worth it?

What you're paying for, when specialty coffee is worth it and when it isn't, and the per-cup math that reframes the price.

What specialty coffee costs in the Philippines

How much a bag of specialty coffee really costs in the Philippines and why — import costs, small-batch roasting, local vs imported, and the per-cup math.

How to read a coffee bag label

Roast date, origin, variety, process, altitude, tasting notes — what each line on a specialty bag means, and the order to read them in.
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How to read coffee tasting notes

Tasting notes on a coffee bag aren't marketing fluff — they're a structured language. A field guide to reading them.

Specialty coffee subscription in the Philippines

How the Draft works — monthly points, buyer-chosen portions from 20 g or whole bags, and manual QR Ph renewal.

Specialty coffee gifts in Manila

A bag of specialty coffee is a good gift and a risky one. How to give coffee that fits someone's palate instead of guessing at it — what to check, and the gift that adapts.

Where to buy specialty coffee beans

Roaster-direct, cafe retail, marketplaces, or a subscription. Compare buying channels, including buyer-chosen portions on the Draft, and check availability before you order.

By city

Specialty coffee in the Philippines

A curator's starting point into Philippine specialty coffee. 140+ roasters across Metro Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Davao and beyond, organized by palate.

Specialty coffee in Manila

A curator's starting point into Metro Manila specialty coffee — Makati, BGC, Quezon City, Mandaluyong, San Juan, organized by palate.

Specialty coffee in Makati

Where Philippine third-wave started — Legazpi and Salcedo Villages, Poblacion, and the country's longest-running roasters. The Makati scene, organized by palate.

Specialty coffee in BGC

A curator's starting point into the Bonifacio Global City specialty corridor — High Street, Uptown, McKinley, Burgos. The roasters and cafes Cascara is drinking.

Specialty coffee in Baguio

The Cordillera coffee city — where you can drink a cup a short drive from where the beans are grown. The Baguio and Benguet roasters, organized by palate.

Specialty coffee in Cebu

The Visayas' fastest-growing third-wave scene — IT Park, Banilad, Mactan. The Cebu roasters Cascara is drinking, organized by palate.
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Specialty coffee in Davao

A drinking city beside a growing one — Mount Apo Arabica and the Davao roasters. Mindanao's coffee heart, organized by palate.

Specialty coffee in Quezon City

Metro Manila's largest city has no single coffee district. Katipunan, Maginhawa, Tomas Morato and Cubao, plus the Quezon City roasters currently in the cellar.

Specialty coffee in Mandaluyong

A production city more than a cafe-crawl city. Why the roasteries cluster near Ortigas, what each district supports, and the Mandaluyong roasters in the cellar.

The Philippine scene

Philippine coffee roasters — a field guide to the local scene

160+ specialty roasters from Metro Manila to Benguet, Cebu, and Davao. Who roasts where, and how to explore them by palate rather than by hype.

Sagada coffee, explained

Heirloom typica arabica at 1,500 meters in Mountain Province — old trees, backyard plots, and a composed highland cup most origins can't grow anymore.

Benguet coffee, explained

The heart of Philippine arabica — smallholder plots from La Trinidad to Atok at up to 2,000 meters, and what that geography puts in the cup.

What Filipino coffee drinkers are drinking

325 logged brews from 56 members across 75 roasters. The varieties and processes Filipino drinkers actually brew — and how often the tasting notes on the bag hold up in the cup.

The State of Philippine Specialty Coffee 2026

October 2026 catalog snapshot: 191 contributing roasters, 3,458 visible beans, 34 origins. Philippine-grown coffee accounts for 32% of origin-resolved lots sold by Philippine roasters in this dataset.

The Philippine coffee harvest calendar

When is Philippine coffee harvested? A region-by-region reference — Cordillera Arabica, Batangas Barako, Mindanao — and how altitude and species move the season across the dry months.
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Barako coffee, explained

The bold, smoky heritage Liberica of Batangas — and the rare third coffee species now prized worldwide for its climate resilience. What it is, how it tastes, and why the coffee world is paying attention again.

Arabica, robusta, liberica, barako

The Philippines grows all four commercial coffee species, which almost nowhere else does. What separates them, where each grows here, and why barako is a species and not a roast level.

Cordillera coffee, explained

The mountain range that makes Philippine specialty arabica possible. Six provinces, the elevation that puts arabica here and nowhere else at this scale, and what the region puts in the cup.

Batangas and Cavite coffee

Lipa, Mataas na Kahoy, Amadeo: the ground behind kapeng barako. A 19th-century export boom, the blight that ended it, and why liberica stayed when the rest of the world moved on.

Mindanao coffee, explained

The south carries most of the country's crop. Bukidnon, the Mount Apo slopes and Sultan Kudarat, the robusta-arabica split by elevation, and why more Mindanao lots reach specialty roasters now.

KapeCon 2026

October 10–11 at Paseo de Roxas along Ayala Triangle, Makati. Free festival entry, announced competitions with separate participation terms, and a full program still forthcoming.

WOFEX 2026 — coffee at the World Food Expo

Coffee was one hall inside the Philippines' biggest food expo, July 29-Aug 1 at WTC and SMX. Which halls held it, what the seminars cost, and the guest question answered with a source.

Philippine Coffee Expo 2026

The top lot took ₱4,900 a kilo at One Ayala, and four of the winning coffees are in the cellar. Who placed, who bought, what they taste like.

Gloria Lagawan tops the PCE 2026 auction

₱4,900 a kilo for a washed Bukidnon lot — the top price at the 2026 Philippine Coffee Expo green-coffee auction, and what the PCQC result means.

Manila Coffee Festival 2026

July 17-19. The other major Manila coffee event of the year — what to expect and the Philippine roasters worth tasting.

Coffee Plz 2026

59 roasters poured at Ayala Malls Circuit over September 4-6. Nine of them hold a permanent cellar listing because of it, including one with no online catalog at all.

The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026

Yardstick at No. 34 is the Philippines' only entry this year — down from four in 2025. What the list measures, and what a global ranking can't tell you about the cup that fits you.

Origins

Philippine coffee, explained

The only origin that grows all four commercial species. A field guide to the Cordillera and Mindanao highlands, Barako, and what Philippine-grown specialty coffee tastes like.

Ethiopian coffee, explained

Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Guji, Limu, Harrar — what each region tastes like, what 'heirloom variety' means, and why Ethiopia anchors specialty coffee.

Kenyan coffee, explained

The loud end of the spectrum. What SL28 and SL34 are, what 'AA' really means, the double-washed process, and why Kenya tastes of blackcurrant and wine.

Colombian coffee, explained

The balanced benchmark. The regions, Castillo and Caturra, the FNC, and why two harvests keep Colombian coffee fresh almost all year round.

Yemeni coffee, explained

Where coffee began. The port of Mokha, heirloom landraces, the highest farms in coffee, and a wild dried-fruit cup found nowhere else.

Panama Geisha, explained

The Ethiopian variety that made Panama famous and broke every green-coffee price record. What Geisha tastes like, washed vs natural, why Boquete, and why it costs what it does.

Process & taste

What is cascara? Coffee cherry tea, explained

Cascara is the dried skin of the coffee cherry, brewed as a tea. What it tastes like, its caffeine next to coffee, how to brew it hot and cold, and the origins that grow it.

Coffee processing methods, explained

Washed, natural, honey, anaerobic — what each one does to the cup, and why processing matters more than origin.

What natural-process coffee tastes like

If washed coffee tastes like the bean, natural tastes like the fruit. How the dry process makes coffee taste of blueberry, and natural vs washed.

Honey-process coffee, explained

No honey involved — the sticky fruit layer dries on the bean. Yellow vs red vs black honey, and the deliberate halfway point between washed and natural.

Anaerobic coffee, explained

Fermentation in sealed, oxygen-free tanks — why it tastes of cinnamon, tropical fruit, and wine, and how to tell a great lot from a gimmick.

Co-fermented coffee, explained

Fruit, spice, or cultured yeast added to the fermentation tank. What co-fermentation does to the cup, why a lot tastes like strawberry candy or whiskey, and how to buy one without getting burned.
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Carbonic maceration, explained

Whole cherries sealed under CO2, so fermentation happens inside the fruit. Where the technique came from, how it differs from plain anaerobic, and what it does to the cup.

Coffee roasting, explained

Light, medium, dark, development time, and why roast date is the single most important number on a specialty bag.

Light roast vs dark roast

What roast level changes in the cup, how light and dark really taste, the caffeine myth, and how to pick the roast that fits the way you drink your coffee.

Coffee acidity, explained

Why bright isn't sour, where acidity comes from, and how to brew for more of it — or less.

The coffee flavor wheel, explained

The map behind every tasting note. What the SCA wheel is, the nine flavor families at its center, and the inside-out method most people get wrong.

Yuzu, bergamot and citrus in coffee

Yuzu is turning up on coffee bags everywhere. What citrus tasting notes mean, whether there's really yuzu in the cup, and how to taste the bright end of specialty coffee on purpose.

Espresso vs filter

Same beans, two drinks. Concentration vs clarity, the 'stronger' caffeine myth, and which brew shows more of a coffee's character.

How to store coffee beans

The four enemies of coffee, where to keep beans (and why not the fridge), the truth about freezing, and how long coffee keeps after roasting.

Specialty decaf, explained

Swiss Water, sugarcane EA, CO2 and the older solvents. What each does to the cup, why a good decaf costs more than the caffeinated lot, and what to expect honestly.

Drip bag coffee, done properly

The single-serve sachet Philippine roasters sell in volume. What it is good at, where its ceiling sits against a pour-over, and how to brew one properly.

Roaster profiles

Big Sur Coffee — Shanghai's Geisha specialist

A Shanghai roaster that buys like a competition team: ultralight single-estate filter — Panama Geisha from Elida and Esmeralda, Testi Ethiopia, full-traceability Kenya.

XLIII Coffee — Vietnam's precision roaster

Formerly 43 Factory. A Da Nang operation built on auction lots, Ninety Plus Criolic Geshas, and a rare Malaysian Liberica — roasted extremely light on a Giesen W6A.