Figaro: Putting Philippine Coffee Back on the Map

Figaro Coffee Company is a Filipino-owned coffee chain that has been in business for sixteen years. However, I only rediscovered Figaro this year—and my rediscovery coincides with my love story with coffee. So I ask your indulgence to let me recount my story.

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I love coffee. It’s in the blood. My dad is an avid coffee drinker (at his peak, he would drink 5 cups a day), and I learned to appreciate the joys of coffee from him. Even though I wasn’t llowed o drink coffee as a child (and quite rightly so—I don’t think stimulants like caffeine are good for growing children), I enjoyed the way it smelled, and the kind of ritual that went inot making a cup—regardless of whether it was instant coffee, or the barako coffee grounds that my mom put into our small drip coffee maker at home.

So it wasn’t a surprise that I embraced coffee wholeheartedly from college on. Coincidentally my college years were also those of the coffee shop boom at the start of this decade. Suddenly, coffee was no longer just a choice between instant and brewed. With espresso machines, coffee presses, and cappuccino came a rediscovery of the centuries-old global coffee culture.

I learned to taste the differences between different varieties of coffee beans, drank my coffee without sugar, and tried out different name-brand coffee shops to find which one served the best cappuccino. In coffee shops, I also found a new, multi-purpose place to study. As someone who lived away from home for the whole of college, coffee shops were where I could study until late in relative peace, without the distractions of my roommates’ chatter.

The main beneficiary of this was the branch of an American chain that was conveniently located across the street from my school. It was also less than a block away from my off-campus dormitory, a walkable, convenient distance.

Immediately after college, though, I went away to work in the mountains of Mindanao, farm from any coffee chain. Sure, I still loved my coffee, but the whole coffee shop culture and the 100-peso cups of coffee were far from my consciousness.

When I came back to Manila after a year and started working here, I became a lot more conscious of my money and where it went. Especially at my starting salary, I felt like I needed to bleed every little peso of all it was worth. (In short, naging kuripot ako.) Going to a coffee shop became a luxury. While I was away, it seemed like my mom and dad had gone on several trips, just the two of them—something that they hadn’t done ever since I was born. One of the trips that my mom told me about was some “coffee tour” that they took in the Batangas-Cavite-Tagaytay area. I didn’t really remember much of the details, though.

As my earnings increased, and I started my little business last year, I had more disposable income, and started going back to coffee shops again. I would still go to the big American chain, but I also started trying out less ubiquitous brands. Strangely, though, it was only after a Figaro stall opened near my work that I decided to try Figaro again (I last went to a Figaro store in my senior year of college), but it was initially for convenience’s sake. It was less than 50 meters away from my office building. :p

Earlier this year, I received Figaro gift checks. As I planned to spend a lot of time writing and reading for my thesis this summer, I decided to save it until my summer vacation and only use it then.

So this summer, I’ve spent several hours working at different Figaro branches, mainly at the Figaro in Gateway Mall, Cubao. Aside from rediscovering their coffees (my personal favorite is the cafe au lait), I also learned to appreciate the ambience of their stores. The marble-topped tables, graceful wood chairs, and wood panelling give their stores an old-world calm and simplicity, in contrast to the more frenetic, American-style interiors of many chain coffee shops.

And it was only recently that I remembered that the “coffee tour” that my parents went on a couple of years ago was a Figaro Coffee Company-organized tour. As I tried to recall the details of tour, it slowly dawned on me that Figaro wasn’t just a Filipino-owned coffee shop, but rather that Figaro was also and more importantly all about Filipino-grown and roasted coffee.

How so? Well, they use all Philippine-grown coffee beans for their stores, generating income for Filipino coffee farmers. But it’s not just about buying beans from farmers—Figaro is engaged with coffee farmers on so many levels: promoting organic farming methods, organizing co-ops for farmers, providing support…

…and most importantly in my eyes, Figaro has helped farmers to grow more Liberica beans. This is a very important achievement, because the Liberica bean is also what we more commonly call barako coffee—and the Philippines grows a special varietal found nowhere else in the world. Before Figaro and other groups stepped in, the barako variety was at risk of being lost forever, because coffee farmers in the Southern Tagalog (the traditional home of barako) were affected by coffee rust (a disease that affects coffee plants) in 1880, and by the the latter part of the 20th Century, they were being pressured to switch to growing Robusta and Arabica beans, beause the big companies and conglomerates bought those beans.

There are so many reasons to choose Figaro coffee–they’re putting Pinoy coffee back on the map.

(BuyPinoy’s Mothers’ Day Special) Without my mother…

…the BuyPinoy blog would not exist.

You may think I am exaggerating, but I’m not. It’s true, on so many levels. On one level, it’s true because without my mom, I would really not be sitting in front of my laptop, typing away. Without our mothers, none of us would exist! Our mothers carried us in their wombs, brought us into the world, fed us, cared for us, and raised us.

But more than my own physical existence, the BuyPinoy blog would not exist without my mom.

I’ve already written about how I was moved into action by OneTama.com–about how I was reminded of one of the principles I believed in: That buying Philippine-made products is a concrete way of contributing to the growth and improvement of the Philippines.

I got that principle from my mother. But it’s not something that she directly taught and said to me, but it was rather a principle that I saw concretely in her everyday actions–at the grocery, the department store, and even in the kind of gifts she gave. I grew up with a sense of pride in locally-made products, and appreciated their quality and craftsmanship, because I saw my mother appreciating their quality and craftsmanship.

Thank you, Mama, for instilling in me a pride in what Pinoys are capable of doing and making.

Happy Mothers’ Day!

  (photo of sampaguita flowers from http://www.philippinecentral.com/images/sampaguita.jpg)

Product Review: Face Canvas Moisture Glider and Make-up Base (Leyende Bath and Body)

I have to be up-front about this: I have been using Face Canvas for the last 6 months, and I love it–and my skin loves it, too.

Face Canvas is one of the products of Leyende Bath & Body–owned and founded by Neva Talladen, whom I know from college. What’s so great about Leyende is not only is it Philippine-made, it’s also proud to make products that use all organic ingredients.

(You may be wondering, what’s all the fuss about “organic”? And what’s the difference between “organic” and “natural”–aren’t they the same thing? The simplest  way to make the distinction is: “natural” simply means that something is derived from nature; while the term organic refers to plants and their by-products that are grown without contact with industrial pesticides, chemical fertilizers, growth hormones, antibiotics, and other harsh chemical treatments.)

In Face Canvas, this lack of harsh chemicals results in a creamy moisturizer that provides the right amount of moisture and protection, without feeling heavy or thick. The texture is light, almost mousse-like. The scent is very mild–it smells faintly of pineapple, mango, with a hint of milk or coconut milk.

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Why Buy Pinoy, Part 3: Development Beyond GDP and GNP

Development can be seen, it is argued here, as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy.

(Italics mine, from Development as Freedom, by Amartya Sen)

One of the most common reasons that I hear for buying Pinoy products is that it supports local businesses and the local economy. Which is true, but it’s sometimes not a reason compelling enough for me. After all, “supporting local business” and “supporting local economy” sounds great, but what does that really mean? On top of that, I certainly don’t want to support local businesses that take advantage and abuse its laborers; nor do I want my (okay, I’ll say it) patriotic stand to result in just some sort of jump in the GNP or GDP numbers.

After all, GNP and GDP are not the best measure of development. Sure, it measures how much an economy has grown on a macro scale, but does it really show us if there is a positive change in the lives of people? And, to be honest, looking at the numbers on a marcro level doesn’t really show me, doesn’t show us, what kind of impact we make as individuals making choices every time we purchase something at the supermarket, or the mall, or the department store.

For me, what is more compelling is an argument that I’m just starting to understand, from the economist Amartya Sen. (Forgive me for going a bit “academic” here–I’m no economic expert though, so please bear with me!) He wants us to consider that real development is not about GNP or GDP, but about human freedom and quality of life.

It’s important for me to emphasize the word “real” in the quote above. Why?

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