AGRICULTURAL Cooperative Development International (ACDI/Voca) Philippines, together with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), introduced the coffee cupping process to grade roasted beans and help upgrade Philippine coffees from medium-quality to specialty coffees.
Coffee cupping is a practice done by licensed Q Graders.
During last Wednesday’s Hapi at Kape presscon at Abreeza, Daniel Byron Pantoja of Coffee for Peace, who also is a licensed Q Grader just recently, demonstrated the proper way of coffee cupping.
He started with putting local coffee, Indian coffee, and Ethiopian coffee in separate identical cups. Each of these is freshly grounded coffee beans. The two foreign coffees are already certified specialty coffees.
He had the audience smell the cups to identify the different smell that the coffee varieties have. There is a standard score sheet where the licensed graders can jot down their evaluation of the coffees basing on an objective standard that also comes with the score sheet kit.
He then proceeded with pouring hot water, around 33 to 35 degrees to the cups in circular motion. Pantoja emphasized that it is particularly important that the temperature of the water for all three cups are the same.
He waits for four minutes before again smelling the aroma of each cup, and grades them exactly how he did before water was poured.
He removes the froth carefully using spoons specifically used for coffee cupping. After which, Pantoja takes a noisy slurp of each coffee. He explains that slurping, instead of just sipping, is like smelling and tasting at the same time.
A grade above 80 percent signifies that the coffee is a specialty coffee and of high quality.
Provincial Director of DTI Compostela Valley Lucky Siegfred Balleque said that coffee cupping opens door to exporting opportunities. He said evaluation from Q Graders is internationally accepted and can actually be used by coffee farmers to prove the export quality of their coffees.
Balleque added Balutakay coffee farmers from Bansalan actually scored an 85 percent when their coffees were graded. With this, he is confident that Davao Region is actually capable of producing high quality coffees if properly guided.
Thelonious Trimmell of ACDI/Voca, who is in the Philippines for two and a half years, said the booming coffee shop industry in the country, particularly in Davao City, reflects the need to develop the country’s coffee industry to be able to provide high-quality coffees.
Trimmell mentioned the different new coffee shops in Davao City that had opened just last year. With the increase in the number of emerging coffee shops in the metro is the increase in the demand of high-quality coffees as well.
Balleque supported this idea by saying that even if major coffee shops in the region use imported coffee beans and powder, there are coffee shops like Bo’s Coffee who patronize locally-produced coffee. If local high-quality coffees are accessible, then coffee shops in the metro can just purchase coffees from local farmers.
He said DTI had started with the coffee cupping awareness campaign for coffee farmers since 2013 and most of these farmers are already aware of the process and how it could help them widen their market.
More than the exporting objective that comes with producing high-quality coffees, Balleque said it also brings in specialty coffees nearer to the Filipinos, who more than anyone, deserves to indulge in the locally-produced high-quality coffees.
He added these high-quality coffees are readily available in supermarkets and malls for household consumption for those not particularly fond of coffee shops.
To further promote the coffee cupping process, ACDI/Voca and the Philippine Coffee Board will be conducting the First Annual Cup Quality Competition that will be held on March 1-4 at the Cavite State University.
The competition is open to “anyone engaged in the production of coffee in the Philippines, including but not limited to coffee cooperatives, farmers, processors and exporters.”
