Bo’s Coffee cuts through the clutter with its ‘just-roasted’ beans

With coffee shops mushrooming everywhere and offering almost the same products, would you still be able to tell the difference?

If you are the type who knows your coffee, the answer is yes, according to Steve Benitez, president and CEO of Bo’s Coffee, the first homegrown chain of coffee shops in the Philippines. And that "difference" is what Bo’s Coffee wants to sustain to set it apart from the rest of the pack, he says.

Started in Cebu in 1996 "way ahead of the Philippine invasion of foreign coffee shops" Bo’s Coffee (then known as Coffee Club) recreated the coffee shop experiences that Benitez came into contact with from his travels to the US and Europe. "Coffee shops are the only place you can go to and be alone," he says. "I would just read and write in a coffee shop, and no one would mind me. I loved that experience."

It was not as easy as it sounds though. Two years prior to opening his first coffee shop, Benitez invested time and money learning about the industry. He attended international coffee conventions and trade shows and studied the business models of coffee shops in the different places he visited. Incidentally, it was in one of those trade shows where he met a coffee connoisseur named Bo, who was to become the inspiration for Benitez’s own coffee shop later on.

In the ‘90s though, Filipinos knew very little about coffee beyond the instant blend that they were used to. That’s why even at P15 per cup, Benitez still had a hard time selling his brewed coffee.

For some time, I had to give away free cups of coffee just so people can taste what I am selling and be able to appreciate its difference from the instant coffee that they have been accustomed to, recalls Benitez, a finalist in the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004.

Slowly, people started to come and actually pay for their cup of brew. From then on, Bo’s Coffee opened more stores in Cebu and later on expanded in other parts of the Visayas such as Bacolod, Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Leyte, and Bohol, until it eventually made a daring venture in Metro Manila. At present, Bo’s Coffee already has 32 company-owned and franchised branches, and 10 of them are in strategic locations in Metro Manila. This year, the chain intends to open 10 more.

Undeniably, the growth speaks of the success of Bo’s Coffee. And it remains undaunted even with the strong presence of foreign coffee shops.

Is there a secret formula?

"Bo’s Coffee managed to build its reputation for selling the freshest coffee brew," Benitez declares. "And when we say fresh coffee, we mean coffee made from just-roasted coffee beans."

Very few coffee drinkers actually realize that fresh coffee is not synonymous to the more popular notion of freshly-brewed coffee.

"The secret to a truly flavorful brew is actually the freshness of the beans and by this, we mean the Bo’s Coffee formula — coffee beans roasted a mere three days before delivery to the stores ready to be transformed into your favorite coffee blends," explained Benitez, who has an infectious passion to educate consumers about coffee.

The beans are roasted in Cavite and, within three days, delivered to all Bo’s Coffee outlets. The beans then have to be consumed within a maximum period of three weeks. Longer than this, the beans are disposed of. That’s why to avoid this wastage, roasting is done in small batches.

According to experts, dry, airtight containers can store the flavor and aroma of ground coffee for about a week. Another week and the aroma starts to fade. Three weeks more and the flavor starts to go as well. This happens because as soon as you grind the beans, delicate oils are exposed and oxygen and moisture starts to take their toll on the coffee even if you don’t open the airtight container.

Bo’s Coffee is confident it can sustain its "just-roasted" beans advantage because it sources 90 percent of its beans locally – from the peaks of the Mountain Province and Benguet to the mountains of Bukidnon and Sultan Kudarat. This also allows the coffee shop to showcase the diversity of Philippine coffee and its ability to compete with the best origins from other coffee-growing regions of the world.

Beyond just selling coffee, Benitez says Bo’s Coffee is all about human experience. "We don’t compete for numbers but we definitely want to be known to be the best at what we do."