Hi all, Erik here from the Philippines!
What is the purpose of my blog? COFFEE!. I love coffee and plan on setting up my own cafe someday when I have the money. In the meantime, I want to help my fellow “kababayans” who are ready to set up theirs. Also, I want to put the Philippines back on the coffee map, the way it was around 400 or so years ago.
I worked as a barista here in the philippine before and want to share the knowledge I have gathered through the years. I am still in the learning process and I am not saying that I am the expert when it comes to coffee but I can honestly say that I know enough to help others. If you have anything you want to ask do tell me so I can try my best to answer it. Mabuhay!
can you help us on our thesis hehehe
what can you say about KAPENG BARAKO???
just call me PINK
a 4th year student
Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management
in Lyceum of the Philippines University- Batangas
Hi pink palaboy! I can contribute but just a little, too busy to even update my blog eh, hehehe.
what exactly do you need?
when is your next barista training? I believe you had just one last Aug 15…wow I miss it.
I’m a coffee fan too, well I see the Philippine coffee is hardly found nowhere in the coffee map these days compared to Indonesia…well Vietnam is more for the robusta…but Arabica is the best variety…and many sub-varieties under it…
hope to meet you one of these days…
Hi Lyndon! Thanks for visiting
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The last one was indeed last Aug.15. Don’t know when the next one will be, it all depends on the demand. I’ll keep you posted. We have a special session for students coming over from the province next week, I’ll upload the shots after.
Hope to read more from you again!
Hi sir Eric, I am one of the NPC employees who attended the recent Barista training conducted by Maya kitchen.
I thought I would be able to see posted pictures of the event at this site, but cant find any. I was with the group which went berseck during the training. I know our group rated your training a high 5! We learned so much on how to make the Espresso(voila!) and the other mixes that goes with it. What I liked most was the Caramel Machiatto ( cant wait to have another round of cup).
I also have a question, why do we always say overflowing when we are reffering to Coffee and bottomless to Tea? – Havent heard the other way around. Please enlighten, just curious.
Thanks.
Hi sir Erick!
Am one of the NPC employees who attended a recent training by Maya kitchen.
I thought I would be able to see any posted pictures of that event but cant find any. Remember that our group went ecstatic during the training , we learned a lot on how to make the Espresso (voila!) and with other mixes that blend with it . I love most is the Caramel Machiatto (cant wait for yet another cup). And the Frenchpress portion was exciting too. We will be buying for our home use.
I also have a question. Why i s it that we use the word overflowing when referring to Coffee and bottomless to Tea? Havent heard interchanging the word. Please enlighten us, just curious.
Kindly post the pictures.
Thanks.
Hi Irene, thanks for dropping by. I’ve recently uploaded the pictures, they’re in the link below:
http://philippinecoffee.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/npc-barista-101-training/
I’m still looking for the pictures of the first batch, I’ll upload them as soon as I find them. Now for your question, there’s no rule I know of that says you can’t interchange the terms “overflowing” and “bottomless” between coffee and iced tea. I think it just sounds better if you use “bottomless” for iced tea than overflowing. For coffee, I might use the word “refillable” instead of “overflowing”. If coffee you serve is hot then adding “overflowing” doesn’t sound right, if you know what I mean
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Hi Erik,
I am a visiting balikbayan from New York and in trying to look for locally grown and/or roasted coffee beans in the Philippines, I have come across your blog several times. It is sad though that a lot of Filipinos would still rather go to Starbucks or Seattle’s Best. They actually serve pretty bad coffee! Even in NY, there’s a great appreciation for locally roasted coffee (beans aren’t grown in the US) by small roasting companies.
I am going home soon and would stay for 2 weeks. So my question is if I want to bring back freshly roasted coffee beans from the Philippines, which are the absolute best places to buy these? I am looking preferably for strong and dark roasts and those that can be good for espresso.
Thanks!
Paolo
Hey Eric,
Great work in getting the Philippines back on the track to quality. Please let us know if we can ever be of any assistance.
Hi Joseph,
Appreciate it mate! Awesome site you have there! If you don’t mind me asking, are you pinoy?
Hi Sir Erik,
Thanks for your insightful lecture in Coffee/Barista 101 this afternoon. Albeit condensed, the course extended my knowledge about coffee and the basic elements that contribute to the proper coffee drink preparation.
I wish you all the best in your initiatives that would bring our country back as one of the top coffee producing nations.
Looking forward to seeing you in your own coffee bar in the near future so I can order your own version of coffee drink mixed with Frangelico. And by the way, I really missed the crispy pata.
Hi… I joined your Coffee 101 class last January 30, 2010. Just wanna ask if I can ask for notes, like the one you presented in class? It will be a big help for me. Thank you po.
You can send it through my email address po if okay lang. Thanks po. 
Coffee 101 class sa The Maya Kitchen po pala…
Hi Erick,
I was one of your participants in the Barista 101 class in Maya Kitchen last Jan 31, 2010. I would like to request your powerpoint slide with the different hot & cold coffee preparations thru email. Hope to hear from you soon.
BTW, can you also upload our “class” picture which was taken that day.
Thank you very much!
Rosanna
Hi Erik,
Your blogs really inspired me much to continue on my coffee shop business. Thanks that I found your site. I’m new in the coffee industry and wishes to learn more about coffee. Can you spare some notes on my e-mail on how or where can I learn more..from sites, trainings, seminars etc.
Thanks a lot and God bless !
Jojo
hi erik,
can you please email me our photos from coffee 101 last 13th of march? thanks in advance!
more power and God bless!
if you happen to go up north, there is this interesting coffee shop in Rosario, La Union that I think is worth giving a try. I made a short entry in my blog about Soul cafe, please check my blog at ttp://chrisaquinoduran.blogspot.com/2010/06/feel-good-cafe-up-north.html
let me know what you think of the cafe. Thanks! — Chris
Hello Erik!
Thanks for giving Cafe de Lipa a second chance, haha. We appreciate what you have written and I’m glad to let you know about how CDL is doing right now.
We already have our website (the very reason why I’m writing to you) and so I wonder if maybe you could post a link to our website http://www.cafedelipa.ph/ in this article of yours. It would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, we have coffee cups for take-out labeled with our company logo. Pastries and other delis are also available in our stores. We hope you could drop by in the nearest CDL branch soon!
(SM Mall of Asia branch already closed but a Market! Market! branch has opened for our dear coffee lovers)
can I have your contact number? or you can answer me here… i just want to ask if what brand of coffee machine and coffee bean are you using? and if you can suggest a coffee bean brand that you can recommend that is available here in the philippines? thank you…
hi! I’m planning to take a barista training coz my mom & I are thinking of starting a small coffee shop. Can you pls suggest a good school at the same time offers affordable fee. Thanks!