Event guide · curated by Cascara
KapeCon 2026.
It starts with the cherryOctober 10 and 11, 2026, at Paseo de Roxas in Makati. KapeCon is the festival built by Coffee Home Brewers — the 67,000-member Facebook group where the Philippine home-brewing scene actually lives — and its first edition pulled close to 15,000 people onto a Makati street. It's back for a second, bigger run. This is a drinker's guide: what the event is, what the first one looked like, what's confirmed so far for 2026, and how to work a festival floor without wrecking your palate by noon.
When
10-11 Oct 2026
Saturday + Sunday
Where
Paseo de Roxas, Makati
Same venue as 2025
What KapeCon is.
Most Manila coffee events start from the industry and invite the public in. KapeCon runs the other way. Coffee Home Brewers began in 2019 as a Facebook group for people making coffee in their own kitchens — founded by Rosario Juan — and grew past 67,000 members trading dial-in advice, gear reviews, and roaster recommendations. KapeCon is that group stepping outside for a weekend: the same people, on an actual street, with the roasters and distributors they've been posting about.
That origin shapes the floor. Where the Philippine Coffee Expo leans trade and the Manila Coffee Festival leans broad, KapeCon skews toward the person who owns a hand grinder and has opinions about it. Expect gear you can touch, brewing you can watch up close, and booth conversations that go three questions deeper than “what's your bestseller.”
The first edition, in October 2025, was co-presented with Ayala Land and Make It Makati and drew close to 15,000 people over two days — more than 50 booths of local roasters, cafes and equipment distributors, plus competitions, panels and workshops. Entry was free. For a first-time event organized out of a Facebook group, that turnout is the story: the Philippine home-brewing scene is much bigger than its quiet online footprint suggests.
What to expect in 2026.
The honest status: dates and venue are confirmed, and the organizers are billing a bigger edition — but the 2026 program, exhibitor list and admission terms haven't been published yet. Registration sits on Eventbrite, which lists 8 AM to 10 PM across both days. Until the schedule drops, the 2025 edition is the best map of what a KapeCon day holds:
The floor
Booths and pop-ups
2025 ran 50+ booths — local roasters, cafes, and equipment distributors. This is the part to plan around: it's the densest concentration of Philippine roasters you can taste in one place this quarter, and gear distributors bring the grinders and brewers you've only seen in group posts.
Competitions
Brewdowns and latte art
2025 staged the Kape't Kamay Brewdown — a duo brewing battle where partners literally hold hands while brewing — and a Latte Art Showdown open to hobbyists for a small entry fee. Watchable even if you never compete; the brewdown is the most KapeCon thing at KapeCon.
Programming
Panels and workshops
The 2025 track ran expert panels on launching a roasting business and running a cafe, plus hands-on sessions — brewing basics, coffee painting, even pottery. Aimed squarely at the home brewer thinking about going further. Some sessions charge separately; check the schedule when it lands.
How to navigate the floor
Pick your corner before you go.
Fifty booths will flood you. By the fourth or fifth cup your palate is spent. The way to get value out of a festival is to taste with intent — know which corner of the Process Spectrum you're hunting in, and route to the booths most likely to deliver.
Bright, floral, tea-like.
Balanced, chocolatey, familiar.
Juicy, fruit-forward, sweet.
Funky, fermented, unconventional.
Don't know your corner yet? The palate quiz takes less than a minute — finish it before you set foot on the street.
Roasters to seek out.
Philippine roasters in the Cascara cellar with active, well-developed lineups. Not an exhibitor list — the 2026 booths aren't announced yet — but a curator's map of the Philippine specialty names worth knowing going into the weekend. If they have a booth, prioritize them. If they don't, ask the people who do whether they carry their beans.
Makati
Third-wave specialty roastery sourcing from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and the Philippines, with cafes in Makati, Ortigas,…
Paranaque
Cebu City
Cebu City roaster offering traceable Philippine coffee with farm-to-cup transparency, shipping single origins and rare lots…
Quezon City
Muntinlupa
Curve Coffee Collaborators is a Philippine specialty roaster focused on award-winning, traceable single-origin and microlot…
Makati
Makati cafe and roastery serving specialty single-origin coffee roasted in-house, with branches on Jimenez and San Isidro.
Makati
Makati specialty coffee roaster and equipment distributor (La Marzocco, Rocket), with branches across Metro Manila.
San Juan
San Juan-based specialty roaster focused on light-roast beans for retail and wholesale to quality-driven cafes.
Cagayan De Oro
Mandaluyong
Mandaluyong specialty coffee roaster supplying roasted beans, barista training and equipment, with a flagship inside Shangri-La…
Davao City
Davao specialty roaster founded by Beauford Ma, sourcing from independent farms worldwide and award-winning Philippine…
Quezon City
Quezon City specialty roaster passionately roasting local and imported single-origin and blended beans since 2016, with fresh…
Las Piñas City
Las Piñas roastery sourcing Philippine coffee through Fair Trade and sustainable practices, supplying beans nationwide via the…
Batac
Antipolo
Bacolod
Working a street festival without burning out.
Register before the day. The 2026 listing is live on Eventbrite. Fifteen thousand people came last year; whatever the gate looks like this time, a registration in your pocket beats a queue in the sun.
Go Saturday morning. First hours of day one is when the limited lots are still on the table and the booth staff still have voices. Sunday afternoon is when the crowd peaks and the interesting bags are gone.
Eat first. Coffee on an empty stomach reads sharper, more acidic, and more fatiguing. A real meal before your first cup changes how everything after it tastes.
Stop swallowing by the second hour. Sommelier rules. After about four cups your receptors are overloaded and your judgement collapses. Sip, assess, put it down.
Take notes on your phone. By the time you're home you will not remember which booth had the strawberry natural. Photograph the bag, type one sentence about the cup. Two-line notes beat zero-line memory.
It's outdoors in October. Paseo de Roxas is a street, and October in Manila is still rainy-season roulette. Bring an umbrella you can carry with a cup in the other hand.
Calibrate before you go.
Eleven questions, less than a minute. Walk down Paseo de Roxas knowing exactly which roasters to prioritize.
Start calibrating →For roasters
Exhibiting at KapeCon? Get listed in the cellar.
People who taste something they love at the festival go home and search for it. If your roastery isn't in the Cascara directory, that search ends nowhere. Listing is free — a permanent profile with your full bean lineup and member ratings, indexed and discoverable year-round.
gil@cascara.cafe →Common questions.
When is KapeCon 2026?
Saturday October 10 and Sunday October 11, 2026, at Paseo de Roxas in Makati. The Eventbrite listing shows 8 AM to 10 PM; the 2025 edition ran 10 AM to 7 PM, so confirm the day's hours on Coffee Home Brewers' channels before you build a schedule around either end of that range.
Is KapeCon free to attend?
The 2025 edition was free admission. For 2026 the organizers have put registration on Eventbrite — check the listing for this year's terms before you go. Some activities inside the festival charged separately in 2025 (the Latte Art Showdown took a small hobbyist entry fee), and paid workshops are likely again.
Who organizes KapeCon?
Coffee Home Brewers — a Filipino Facebook group of home brewers that started in 2019 and has grown past 67,000 members, founded by Rosario Juan. KapeCon is its flagship event: the online group brought into the physical world for a weekend. The 2025 edition was co-presented with Ayala Land and Make It Makati.
What happened at KapeCon 2025?
The first edition drew close to 15,000 people over two days at the same venue, with more than 50 booths from local roasters, cafes and equipment distributors. Programming included the Kape't Kamay Brewdown duo brewing competition, a Latte Art Showdown, expert panels on starting a roastery and running a cafe, and workshops from coffee painting to brewing basics.
What can I expect at KapeCon 2026?
The organizers are billing a bigger second edition — the full 2026 program, exhibitor list and competition schedule haven't been published yet. Going by 2025: booths from local roasters and gear distributors, brewing and latte-art competitions, hands-on workshops, and panels aimed at people who brew at home or want to work in coffee. This page updates when the schedule drops.
How is KapeCon different from the Philippine Coffee Expo, the Manila Coffee Festival, and Coffee Plz?
Four events, four organizers, four audiences. The Philippine Coffee Expo (June, Makati) is the trade-leaning industry show. The Manila Coffee Festival (July) is the broad consumer festival. Coffee Plz (September) is roaster-run and tasting-first. KapeCon (October) grew out of a home-brewing group, so it skews toward the person behind a kitchen grinder: gear, technique, and meeting the people you've only known as usernames.
How should I work the floor at KapeCon?
Decide your palate corner before you go — Clean, Classic, Fluid, or Experimental — and route to the roasters in that corner first. Eat before you arrive, and stop swallowing every sample after the first hour; by the fourth cup your palate stops telling you the truth. The palate quiz below takes less than a minute and gives you a map for the floor.
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Author · Gil Erez, Founder of Cascara · 6 September 2026