A 2026 guide · curated by Cascara
Specialty coffee in the Philippines.
Specialty coffee in the Philippines is bigger than its reputation suggests. Most roasters are small, most are local, most don't make it past their own neighborhood. This guide is a starting point — a curator's entry into the roasters and beans Cascara is drinking and sharing with the community, organized so you can find a coffee you'll like before you buy a bag you won't drink.
The state of Philippine specialty.
Philippine specialty has changed faster than the country's reputation for it. Five years ago you could count the SCA-aligned roasters in Metro Manila on two hands. Today there are over a hundred — Makati, Quezon City, Mandaluyong, Cebu, Baguio, Davao — most working both with Philippine origin from Benguet, Sagada, Sultan Kudarat, and Mt. Apo, and with import lots from Colombia, Ethiopia, Panama, Kenya, and Rwanda.
The coffee is real. The public directory of who's roasting what isn't. That's what Cascara is building — a curator-verified cellar of the roasters we're drinking and sharing with the community, with member ratings on every bean.
How Cascara organizes the cellar
The Process Spectrum.
Most coffee menus list flavor notes that mean nothing until you've been drinking specialty for years. Cascara's Process Spectrum is a shortcut. Every bean in the cellar lives at one of four corners:
Bright, floral, tea-like — washed Kenya, washed Ethiopia.
Balanced, chocolatey, familiar — natural Brazil, washed Colombia.
Juicy, fruit-forward, sweet — honey Costa Rica, semi-washed Indonesia.
Funky, fermented, unconventional — co-ferment Colombia, anaerobic Rwanda.
Knowing which corner you live in cuts the search problem from “thousands of beans” to “a few dozen that suit your palate.” The Cascara web app calibrates this in eleven questions.
Where to start.
We feature these because they have an active, well-developed lineup in the Cascara cellar — not because they're “best.” Best is a question of fit. These are starting points.
Makati
Third-wave specialty roastery sourcing from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and the Philippines, with cafes in Makati, Ortigas,…
Paranaque
Quezon City
Muntinlupa
Curve Coffee Collaborators is a Philippine specialty roaster focused on award-winning, traceable single-origin and microlot…
San Juan
San Juan-based specialty roaster focused on light-roast beans for retail and wholesale to quality-driven cafes.
Makati
Makati cafe and roastery serving specialty single-origin coffee roasted in-house, with branches on Jimenez and San Isidro.
Batac
Mandaluyong
Mandaluyong specialty coffee roaster supplying roasted beans, barista training and equipment, with a flagship inside Shangri-La…
Antipolo
Cebu City
Cebu City roaster offering traceable Philippine coffee with farm-to-cup transparency, shipping single origins and rare lots…
Quezon City
Quezon City specialty roaster passionately roasting local and imported single-origin and blended beans since 2016, with fresh…
Mandaluyong
Across the country.
The directory skews heavy toward Metro Manila — Makati, Quezon City, and Mandaluyong account for roughly half the roasters in the cellar. But specialty coffee is being roasted in Baguio, Cebu City, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Bacolod, El Nido and beyond. Browse the full Cascara directory to find roasters near you.
Recently added to the cellar.
The cellar refreshes every few days as new lots come in. Here's what's most recent.
Panama - Tierra Blanca C5 Geisha Washed
Panama · Archers Coffee
Panama - Tierra Blanca C2 Geisha Natural
Panama · Archers Coffee
Panama - Symmetry, Iris Estate
Panama · Archers Coffee
Panama - Symbiosis, Iris Estate
Panama · Archers Coffee
Panama - Spectrum, Savage Coffees
Panama · Archers Coffee
Panama - Santamaria Estate Geisha Natural Lot 11
Panama · Archers Coffee
How to find a coffee you'll actually like.
Eleven questions, five minutes. Your Cellar Identity unlocks personalized fit on every bean in the cellar — and our algorithm picks your monthly Drop subscription bag.
Start calibrating →For roasters
Roast specialty coffee? Get listed.
Cascara is community-curated. If you roast specialty coffee in the Philippines and want your bean lineup in the cellar, get in touch. Listing is free. What you get is a proper public profile, member ratings, and discovery from people actively looking for the kind of coffee you're roasting.
gil@cascara.cafe →Common questions.
Is Philippine specialty coffee actually good?
Yes — and it's improved sharply in the last five years. Specialty in the Philippines now spans both local origin (Benguet, Sagada, Sultan Kudarat, Mt. Apo) and import lots from Colombia, Ethiopia, Panama, and Kenya. Cup quality varies more than the country's reputation suggests; the way to navigate it is by roaster and process, not by country alone.
Where is the best specialty coffee in Manila?
There isn't a single answer, because 'best' depends on what you actually like to drink. Metro Manila has ~70 specialty roasters across Makati, Quezon City, Mandaluyong, San Juan and Taguig. The Cascara directory lists every roaster in the cellar, with member ratings on the beans they roast.
Where to find specialty coffee in Baguio, Cebu, or Davao?
Baguio has a small, serious specialty scene built around local highland origin. Cebu City has 5+ active specialty roasters; Davao is anchored by farmer-direct lots from Mt. Apo and Mt. Matutum. The Cascara directory filters by region.
How does Cascara decide which roasters to feature?
We don't rank or score roasters. The directory is curator-verified — every roaster in the cellar gets a public profile with their full bean lineup, regardless of size or marketing budget. Members rate the individual beans; that's the only ranking signal that exists on Cascara.
Find your palate. Find your roaster.
Eleven questions, five minutes. Free, no commitment. Your kite is yours from the moment you finish.
Start calibrating →