Beans, beats and matcha blended in San Juan City’s The Corner House last July 12-13 to celebrate a unique twist in Metro Manila’s café culture: a phase in urban life yet to be fully relished beyond a simple fix of joe.

The Coffee Plz! Festival brought enthusiasts and brewers to a movement aimed at supporting independent roasters, matcha mixers, experimental bakers, and a new generation of homegrown entrepreneurs.

Sixteen top roasteries shared one roof, including Cebu (The Good Coffee Co.), Subic’s Hometown Cafe and Manila’s Escolta Coffee Company.

Quezon province’s Bodega Coffee Roasters garnered the aeropress championship, producing quality coffee and talented prep.

Curve Coffee Collaborators also introduced local coffee and Venezuelan beans, while Filter Supply, Life and Coffee, and Acid Coffee joined coffees from Japan and South Korea. Their presence ensured a global discussion on a multitude of tastes.

Coffee ages well, too!

Coffee enthusiast Joaquin Villegas found the festival an immersive experience. He said his lack of coffee knowledge led him to the event that gave him access to learning about beans, roasts, and brewing methods.

“It’s the first time I heard of a coffee festival at all,” Villegas said. “I’m not really knowledgeable about coffee beans or matcha powders and whatnot because I don’t normally have the money to afford them. So, I wanted to explore how they differ and the sorts of roasts and beans and everything I should be looking out for.”

He noted how his own palate had evolved over time and how drinking coffee had become a daily ritual rather than a luxury.

“Coffee’s an acquired taste and it grew on me. And it has stuck to me,” Villegas said. He usually gets his coffee at cafés, he said. If not, there’s a coffee machine at his home for his drip coffee.

Bern Baudis, another enthusiast, said the Metro’s coffee scene needs a physical, tangible space for the coffee and matcha culture that has proliferated in the virtual world.

“There are so many brands here that don’t even have physical stores,” Baudis said, adding that a living coffee scene does not need to be expensive but needs to be diverse.

“I’m not really a coffee connoisseur, so I don’t know much about gadgets,” she said. “I just want to check out the coffee scene. There are so many brands here … So, I’m trying them out, see what’s good, what’s not good.”

What’s coffee without a pastry?

Coffee isn’t filling by itself and tea can be balanced with baked goods on the side. Croissants baked by Rebel Bakehouse, which has taken Baguio City by storm, were among the products displayed during the festival.

Rebel Bakehouse cofounder Danica Santos cited the cultural link and a spirited connection between coffee and baked goods that transcend the culinary realm. “I think the taste of people was elevated along with the coffee scene,” she said, remarking that if your coffee is good, so should the pastries. “Kung masarap yung kape mo, masarap din dapat ‘yung kapareha nito.”

Santos observed that competition in the Metro market is a palpitating race compared to the laid-back Baguio scene. She recalled how the trend launched in Baguio, where small-business bakeries offered flavored croissants, and how local and tourist demand carried the idea to Metro Manila.

“In Baguio, not many people sell croissants in a variety of colors and flavors. So, we started the business, and then came the tourists who buy and bring these to Manila,” she said in Filipino.

Matcha movement

If coffee is the long-time king of the typical Metro café, matcha is the rising queen. The powdered tea leaves have become a menu staple, with a whole branch of studies focusing on how they have enriched café culture.

Andre Chanco of Yardstick Coffee said the inclusion of matcha in cafés has highlighted a customer-based curation.

“Initially, it’s just coffee. And then when I was noticing, I’m like, oh, matcha is also having its own agenda, right?” said Chanco, who organized the festival with other participants.

He said coffee festivals are not new, but a Metro coffee festival showcases Manila’s cosmopolitan coffee taste and also accommodates the niche tastes often overlooked in larger events.

“The coffee festivals that I’ve seen in the Philippines, sometimes they’re too big,” Chanco said. “And when it’s too big, you’re forced to do more than what you can. The focus sometimes shifts. But there’s nothing wrong with that. I can see music and coffee festivals, like cars and bicycles and coffee festivals.”

He said the coffee and matcha culture in Metro Manila isn’t merely about the proliferation of cafés or the popularity of cold brews, creamy cakes, cloud-laden croissants and ceremonial-grade powder.

“Because we’ve been in the industry for a while, we have a good network,” he said. “But even with the network, I had to make sure that we had industry leaders. We have merchants or roasters or cafes that address different audiences.”

What comes next?

Chanco said a rerun of Coffee Plz! is likely, but only if the organizers can keep their core principle of merchant and community happiness intact: “What we wanted to do was, how can we keep the merchants happy?” he said. “That was our focus. Why? If the merchants are happy, it means that the visitors are happy.”

Baudis and Villegas expect another festival next year, with more demo booths.

“I want to see more shops making drinks right in front of me. Not just beans, but lattes and brews I can try on the spot,” Villegas said.

Hannah L. Tabunda, a third-year journalism student at the University of the Philippines’ College of Media and Communication, is an intern at CoverStory.ph.

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