History of Coffee in the Cordillera

By Maurice Malanese, Midori Nakamura, John Tacloy           

 

Coffee was believed to have been introduced in the Philippines by the Spaniards. A Franciscan friar brought to the Philippines 3 gantas of coffee beans via a Mexico-Manila galleon voyage in the 1740s, and planted them somewhere in Manila. Upon his death, his servant boy dug-up the coffee plants and planted them in his father's land in Pinagtongolan, Lipa, Batangas.  

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Sipping Culture

By Maurice Malanese

Coffee is connected to the daily lives of local people. Coffee, a valuable cash crop, used to be mostly drunk among old folks, not by children. Children were told by adults that drinking coffee dulled their brains. However, upon reflection on their childhood, local people think they were told this superstition because coffee was a valuable item, to be drunk only by old folks. Usually, local people drink coffee with sugar. Milk was too expensive for people to drink with coffee.

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