Coffee lovers take a shine to Philippine brew

How an accidental documentary about Philippine coffee is jumpstarting a global movement.

The word ‘kalsada’ means ‘road’ in Filipino, the perfect name for a specialty coffee distributor that has brought coffee beans harvested deep in the mountainous regions of the Philippines to coffee mugs in the urban streets of San Francisco and Chicago. This weekend, Sydneysiders enjoyed a fine introduction.

At the Max Webber Library in Blacktown, more than 100 guests – mostly Filipino-Australians - swapped books for beans in a special coffee tasting (or ‘coffee cupping’) session ahead of a film screening about … you guessed it, specialty coffee from the Philippines.

For coffee lovers, this was a rare treat and the verdict was overwhelmingly positive. Bags of coffee named after the town they came from - and roasted only a few weeks before the cupping session - sold out within the hour. Among the choices were the beans from Sitio Kisbong (Flavour notes: calamansi, melon and jackfruit) and from Sitio Bulusan (Flavour notes: dark chocolate, licorice and blackberry).

Guests enjoyed a special film screening of ‘Ma’am Tere – a documentary about the people behind specialty coffee in the Philippines’ with an introduction and Q&A session with the Fil-Am filmmaker Paul Barreto.

Barreto explained that he had not intended to do a documentary at all but after looking at his footages and recordings from his visit to Kalsada's coffee farms, 'Ma'am Tere' was born. The film has since been screened in the US, in Australia and shortly, in the Philippines.

The event was organised by Coffee Belt, which sells and distributes Philippine coffee in Australia and Alt Coffee Beans, which hosts coffee education and experiences. The afternoon program was held in collaboration with Akasya Kape, Constant Coffee and First Harvest Coffee.