Percolating a global coffee community

In the Mindanaoan bundoks of Bukidnon, Starbucks has been brewing a community effort since early 2000s to uplift the lives of the farmers and their families, in the land of Miarayon, through building schools. Today, Starbucks Philippines’ Global Responsibility manager Zee Perez and Boyd Coffee Company owner Robert Francisco are percolating the effort this time from the immediate community to a global scale, through a single coffee seed.

It may sound impossible, but I witnessed it first hand as I joined Zee on her first cupping caravan to teach the farmers and me that it only takes a single seed to plant a positive difference that can dramatically improve a whole community.

The Coffee Trail

Accessible through the roughest and bumpiest three hours that your ass can take, Miarayon greets you with a serene view of Mt. Kitanglad to remind you why the trip was worth it. The clean air chill soon embraces you but is quickly warmed by hospitable welcomes of the locals. The people of Miarayon are so generous in their spirit of sharing stories that I can see how this community has captured the hearts of donors, travel seekers, the coffee specialists, and the Filipino and Spanish anthropologists who joined me to help out.

As my Miarayon guide, Zee explains that the community’s coffee production used to be the pride of Bukidnon in the early 1980s but eventually was taken over by crops like carrots, cabbage, and peanuts. Yet, the community has to restore its former glory as a coffee province as world- class beans are much sought after with a premium price. Unroasted Sumatra beans can be sold at least P200 a kilo compared to Miarayon beans that sell for only P40 a kilo. As such, raising the price of their coffee through quality can develop their community on an unexpected scale.

It’s our global responsibility:  Starbucks Global Responsibility manager Zee Perez explains the community benefits of good coffee brewing. 

This is why Zee, her team of baristas, and coffee guru Robert Francisco set up an instant Starbucks coffee shop in the mountains to educate Miarayon farmers’ taste buds in the proper way to pick, roast, and brew globally-competitive beans. They were also treated to a taste test of other Starbucks blends to compare their coffee with other parts of the world. This education is much needed as the locals are used to unevenly roasting their coffee or over-brewing it in the dark as electricity only reached their parts in 2003. In addition, being used to drinking burnt coffee, the locals didn’t know what kind of quality would make the coffee sell better.

After the taste test and proper roasting of their beans, the farmers and their families took pride in their own beans as they found these more aromatic and flavorful than the other blends. Thus, restoring their faith that they can be a coffee province for the world.

Raising The Environmental Spirit

Once back in Manila, Zee introduced me to Fr. Dario Saniel, S.J, who was assigned in Miarayon for five years, to show me that coffee can raise the environmental spirit as well. Fr. Dario, who grew up planting coffee trees in Davao, found it then natural with his green thumb to grow them in Miarayon once he set foot on its lush greenery. He even planted a coffee tree in the back of his parish’s altar.

 As months went by, Fr. Dario recounts how he observed how coffee was helpful for the community and not just to keep him warm in the painfully chilly mornings. During his time there, he saw how Bukidnon would easily flood from deforestation and how the lean months would make the local families hungry.

He soon spread the word of coffee in Miarayon during his homilies and as much as he can to the people under his parish. He taught them how coffee trees can absorb more water during the rainy month, as compared to the usual crops and even earn a better keep as well. Hence, he ingrained in them the idea that coffee could save the environment and, in turn, their lives too.

After the Bukidnon trip and meeting Fr. Dario, I completely understood the Starbucks idea of a shared planet. It is about first understanding that we are all connected in this world. Our relationship with the environment and fellowmen affects how we will live in the future. As such, living in a shared planet, whether a barista, anthropologist, priest or journalist, is a shared responsibility. We must then pool our skills and talents in making this world better. As it says on the Starbucks bag, “You and Starbucks. It’s bigger than coffee.”