Start with what you enjoy.
Specialty coffee in Manila has the beans. It does not have a way to learn what your palate wants. You can read tasting notes for a year and still default to “I like it” or “I don’t.” Cascara starts there.
The founder, Gil Erez, has spent fifteen years building SaaS fintech across Europe and Asia. Most recently he was Chief Strategy Officer at Silver Lining, overseeing company operations and Silver Lining Capital, a small-business loan fund. Coffee is older than the company — years of home brewing, the same questions every weekend, no language to answer them. Cascara is what comes from staying with the question long enough to build something around it.
Cascara is built on three claims, and the product has to prove each one.
Specialty coffee discovery is broken.
Palate is learnable.
The Philippines is the right place to prove it.
What Cascara is
A place to discover specialty coffee and keep a record of what you enjoy. Your brew ratings refine your palate profile and help you choose your next coffee. Explore four identities: Clean , Classic , Fluid , Experimental .
What Cascara is not
Not a cafe chain. Not a roaster. Not a luxury brand. Not a third-wave coffee lecture. Not for everyone. One hundred Personal lockers. Thirty Corporate. Once full, waitlist only.
About the name
Cascara — the dried skin of the coffee cherry. The name is a nod to the part of the plant most coffee drinkers never taste, and to the cellar’s premise: every cup carries more story than most people get to read. We are based in BGC, Manila — not in Costa Rica, not the cherry itself.
Where Cascara is now
Cascara is available on the web and iPhone. You can explore the coffee catalog, find your palate profile and log your brews. A physical members’ cellar in BGC is planned.
Find your palate
If any of this reads like the room you have been looking for, start with the calibration. It takes less than a minute and gives you your palate profile.
Start calibrating