Coffee plantation, Philippines

COFFEE BEANS HANGING ON TRESS

Coffee was brought in the Philippines centuries ago by the Spaniards while the country was a colony.

They planted coffee trees on the highlands. And because of good combination of humidity, cold, soil

and the tropical climate, these plantation flourished. By the 19th century, the Philippines was the 4th

largest coffee producing country in the world.

Barako coffee is the Philippine term for coffee produced in Batangas. This Philippine coffee is

of the Liberica variety. Liberica is rare and exotic, grown only in 3 countries out of about 70

coffee producing countries in the world. The first Barako tree was a a cutting from Brazil planted

in the 1800s in Barangay Pinagtung-Ulan, Batangas by the Macasaet family. Barako coffee has

strong taste, flavor, and has a distinctively pungent aroma. All coffee grown in Batangas is

generically called Barako.

During this golden times of coffee production in the Philippines, the town of Lipa in Batangas

flourished and many plantation owners became millionaires. In 1887, Spain’s Queen Isabella

elevated the town of Lipa into a city named it Villa de Lipa owing to its prosperity. Lipa became

one of the richest cities in the Philippines during the coffee boom.