Data report · the Cascara catalog
The State of Philippine Specialty Coffee 2026.
Nobody measures the Philippine specialty coffee market. Cascara does — bean by bean, in the cellar. This report aggregates the full catalog as of June 2026: 200 roasters, 1,598 verified beans, 36 origin countries. The numbers say the market has already made its choices. Natural process outnumbers washed. One bean in five is fermented. And one in nine is grown on Philippine soil.
Beans tracked
1,598
Verified and listed in the cellar
Roasters
200
153 Philippine · 47 international
Origins
36
Countries of origin in the catalog
Natural has overtaken washed.
The defining fact of the 2026 market: washed coffee — the historical default of specialty — is now the second process. 35% of the catalog is natural, 25% washed, and 21% anaerobic or otherwise fermented. Add natural and fermented together and 56% of the beans on Philippine shelves are fruit-forward processing.
12.1%of beans list no process on the roaster's own page — a transparency gap, not a category.
The roaster landscape.
The catalog tracks 200 roasters across 19 countries. 153 are Philippine — 76.5% of the field — and they account for 626 of the 1,598 beans. The other 47 roast abroad and reach Philippine drinkers through importers, cafes, and direct shipping. Japan sends more roasters into this market than any other country.
What each process does to the cup, measured.
Every bean in the cellar carries a sensory profile on four axes — acidity, body, sweetness, and funk — scored 0 to 1. Averaged across 1,598beans, the axes show what the process labels actually mean in the cup. Washed coffee runs bright and light: the highest acidity of any process and the lowest funk, at 0.13. Anaerobic and fermented lots sit at 0.77 — a sixfold gap on the same scale. Natural is where the market's sweetness lives: 0.91, the highest of any process.
Where the beans come from.
1,275 beans — 79.8% of the catalog — are imported single origins, drawn from 36 countries. Colombia and Ethiopia lead, as they do in most specialty markets. The third place is the telling one: Panama, with 209 beans, 178 of them gesha. The variety built for competition tables has become an ordinary sight on Philippine shelves.
Blends account for a further 126 beans (7.9%); 21 beans list no origin.
Philippine-grown
One bean in nine is grown here.
176 beans in the catalog are Philippine-grown — 11%of the market, and the fourth-largest origin overall, ahead of Brazil and Kenya. The local lots follow the market's wider tilt: natural process leads (74 of 176), with washed and fermented lots nearly even behind it.
On the Process Spectrum, Philippine-grown coffee is Classic-dominant: 78 of 176 lots — 44.3% — sit in the warmth-body-ripe-fruit corner, a higher share than the catalog at large. The Clean corner is the smallest at 20 lots; the washed, high-grown clarity that wins the national quality competitions is still the exception, not the rule.
The market on the Process Spectrum.
Cascara reads every coffee against a four-corner Process Spectrum and assigns each bean one identity. Across the catalog the shape is clear: Classic holds 37.2% of the market, and the other three corners split the rest almost evenly. For a market this young, that balance is the story — Experimental is already as large as Clean.
Clarity, bright acidity, clean finish.
Warmth, body, ripe fruit.
Balance, range, adapts to context.
Edge, ferment, wine notes.
Methodology.
All figures are aggregated from the Cascara catalog — 200 roasters and 1,598 beans, snapshotted June 2026. Only verified, listed beans are counted; pending submissions and retired lots are excluded. 118 of the 200 tracked roasters had beans listed at the time of the snapshot.
Process labels are taken from each roaster's own published description and grouped into five families; beans with no stated process are reported as unspecified, not guessed. Sensory axes and identity classifications follow the cellar's standard reading of each bean — the same profile members brew against. Origin reflects the green coffee's country of growth, not where it was roasted.
Cite freely with attribution and a link to this page. For the underlying aggregates or questions about the data, write to the cellar.
Your corner of the market
1,598 beans. Four corners. One is yours.
This report describes the market. Calibration describes you — five questions, and the cellar reads your palate against the same spectrum every bean above is measured on.
Calibrate your palate →Common questions.
How many specialty coffee roasters are there in the Philippines?
The Cascara catalog tracks 153 Philippine specialty roasters as of June 2026, alongside 47 international roasters whose beans circulate in the Philippine market. This is a catalog count, not a census — it covers roasters whose beans are listed and verified in the cellar.
What is the most common coffee process in the Philippines?
Natural. 35% of the beans in the catalog are natural process, against 25% washed. Another 21% are anaerobic or otherwise fermented. Counted together, more than half of the Philippine specialty market is fruit-forward processing — washed coffee is no longer the default.
Where do the beans in the Philippine market come from?
The catalog spans 36 origin countries. Colombia leads with 290 beans, Ethiopia follows with 276, and Panama — driven almost entirely by gesha lots — holds 209. The Philippines itself is the fourth-largest origin, with 176 locally grown lots: 11% of the catalog.
How much Philippine-grown coffee is in the specialty market?
176 of the 1,598 beans in the catalog are Philippine-grown — 11%. The local lots lean natural process (74 of 176) and sit mostly in the Classic corner of the Process Spectrum: warmth, body, ripe fruit.
What are the four coffee identities?
Cascara reads every coffee against a four-corner Process Spectrum. Clean: clarity, bright acidity, a clean finish. Classic: warmth, body, ripe fruit. Fluid: balance and range. Experimental: edge, ferment, wine notes. Across the catalog, Classic is the largest corner at 37%; the other three are nearly even at 20-22% each.
Where does this data come from?
All figures are aggregated from the Cascara catalog: 200 roasters and 1,598 verified, listed beans, snapshotted in June 2026. Pending or unverified submissions are excluded. The catalog is maintained by hand and from roasters' published lineups.
Read next.
Specialty coffee in the Philippines — a 2026 guide
The national map — Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Davao, and the Bukidnon highlands.
Gloria Lagawan tops the PCE 2026 auction
₱4,900 a kilo for a washed Bukidnon lot — what the PCQC result means for Philippine-grown coffee.
Coffee processing methods, explained
Washed, natural, honey, anaerobic — what each one does to the cup, and why the labels matter.
Author · Gil Erez, Founder of Cascara · 11 June 2026