Philippine Coffee and Kapeng Barako

The Philippines once briefly supplied much of the world's coffee, before an 1880s rust outbreak destroyed its Batangas heartland. Today the country grows barako (liberica) alongside arabica in the northern Cordillera and robusta across Mindanao, though it now imports far more coffee than it exports.

How much coffee does the Philippines produce today?

The Philippines is a small coffee producer today, a sharp comedown from its 19th-century peak. The country grew about 35,000 tonnes of coffee in 2018, according to Wikipedia's summary of Philippine coffee production, while domestic consumption that same year ran to roughly 170,000 tonnes — a gap covered mostly by imports, chiefly from Vietnam and Indonesia, worth an estimated ₱7 billion to ₱10 billion a year.

What is kapeng barako, and where did it come from?

Kapeng barako is the Filipino name for liberica coffee, the large-beaned, fruit-forward species that has defined Philippine coffee culture for centuries. According to Wikipedia's summary of Philippine coffee production, a Franciscan friar planted the country's first coffee tree around 1730 in Lipa, Batangas, and Augustinian friars Elias Nebreda and Benito Varas later helped spread cultivation to neighboring towns. Batangas barako became genuinely prestigious: by the 1880s it reportedly sold for five times the price of Java beans, and Lipa earned a reputation as the coffee capital of the Philippines.

What happened in the 1880s coffee rust outbreak?

The Philippines' coffee boom collapsed almost as fast as it built. Wikipedia's summary of Philippine coffee production credits 1880 as the country's peak, when it ranked as the world's fourth-largest coffee exporter, and describes 1887–1889 as a period when the Philippines briefly became, in the article's words, "the only source of coffee in the world," after coffee leaf rust devastated competing origins elsewhere in Asia. That position didn't last: coffee rust reached the Philippines' own trees in 1889, and by 1891 national production had fallen to about one-sixth of what it had been two years earlier, according to the same source. The disease virtually destroyed Batangas's coffee trees, forcing farmers to abandon the crop or relocate surviving seedlings to nearby Cavite province.

Where does Philippine arabica grow?

Arabica today comes mainly from the cool highlands of the Cordillera Administrative Region in northern Luzon, which Wikipedia describes as a major producer of high-quality arabica alongside its well-known temperate vegetables. Benguet province, and specifically the town of Sagada in neighboring Mountain Province, are the names most associated with the style: Sagada sits at roughly 1,472 m (4,829 ft), and Spanish colonizers introduced arabica there between 1882 and 1896, according to Wikipedia's article on the town, with the crop still marketed today through the regional hub of La Trinidad, Benguet. Smaller, award-winning arabica plots have also been developed around Mount Apo in Mindanao, in barangays high enough to suit arabica despite sitting on an island otherwise associated with robusta.

Where does Philippine robusta grow?

Robusta is by far the country's dominant species today, making up about 90% of national production, according to Wikipedia's summary of Philippine coffee production. Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, is the center of that industry, and Sultan Kudarat is the single largest coffee-producing province on the island. Robusta's tolerance for lower elevations and hotter conditions suits Mindanao's geography better than arabica, which is why the country's arabica plantings stay concentrated in cooler highland pockets like the Cordillera instead.

What does Philippine coffee taste like, and what should buyers look for?

Barako's cup is generally described as full-bodied and fruit-forward, with tropical, sometimes jackfruit-like aromas and only moderate acidity — a distinctly different profile from either arabica or robusta, according to the Specialty Coffee Association's summary of liberica and its relatives. Philippine arabica, grown at Cordillera elevations comparable to many well-regarded Latin American highlands, tends toward a more conventional bright, clean cup, though limited volumes mean it's less consistently documented than barako's more distinctive style.

How does Philippine coffee compare with Jamaica Blue Mountain?

The Philippines and Jamaica share an odd historical echo: both benefited, in different centuries, from coffee leaf rust wrecking other producers' crops elsewhere in the world, and both are small producers today next to countries like Brazil or Vietnam. But their paths diverged sharply after that. Jamaica's Blue Mountain area maintained a single, legally protected arabica identity that grew into a global premium brand; the Philippines' own coffee industry never fully recovered from the same disease that briefly made it the world's top supplier, and today the country imports far more coffee than it grows.

The cup difference is just as stark. Blue Mountain's Typica arabica is widely described as mild and balanced, with low bitterness, while barako's fuller body and tropical-fruit character sit at nearly the opposite end of the flavor spectrum. Readers curious to taste that milder, more restrained style directly can start with Mamre Blue's Jamaica Blue Mountain ground coffee, in the shop.