Change your coffee, change your life.

Written as advertisement on a car in Baguio, Philippines

I love to buy grinded coffee from the local producers along my way. Every morning fresh brewed aromatic coffee, mmm... I just need to find hot water and make muddy coffee in the old primitive way! Although in India, Indonesia and Philippines they grow very good coffee for export, the locals still prefer to drink instant coffee with sugar and creamer! Only on Lombok island and some cities in Java like Yogyakarta I encountered a local culture of drinking brewed coffee. When ordering coffee in Indonesia its very important to mention "coffee pahit" (bitter coffee) or "tidak gula" (no sugar) otherwise the coffee will be served with a lot of sugar inside.

Here is my coffee list:

- Coffee from Lombok, which my friend Yasir gave me as a present. Produced, roasted in a pan over fire and grinded by a small self made machine. The taste of this coffee is rough and strong, mixed with the aroma of fire of the mighty Rinjani volcano

Mataram city, Lombok island, Indonesia. Old woman is roasting local coffee in a pan over fire. A self made grinding machine can be seen on the left side of the picture.

- Coffee from Bali, which me and Leni bought from a local roaster in a small city in the mountains in the middle of Bali island. We visited the guy in his local house hidden in small gang (street) of the main road. He buys coffee beans from local growers and roasts them in a self made roasting machine using gas from a big steel bottle. He showed us his small factory at home. The coffee powder was stored in two big barrels. Because the owner was taking care of his small baby, he let me fill the plastic bags with coffee by myself and we closed them with a small heating stamp machine. The owner was so friendly! He made coffee for us to try and picked two guava fruits from his garden for us! The price of one kilogram coffee is 50.000 IDR (around 5 USD). This Bali coffee is quite amazing thing!

- Coffee from Baguio, North Luzon, Philippines. This coffee I bought on the market in Baguio from a specialized coffee shop. They had many different kind of beans, which they will grind on the spot for the customer. The price is 200 pesos per kilogram (around 5 USD). This coffee had a great balanced strong taste and aroma. My travel buddy Thomas from USA also appreciated it. The bag of my coffee was eaten up later in Manila by Lyka, the young huskey lady!

- Coffee de Lipa, Barako coffee from Batangas, Philippines.
I bought it from the local grocery store in Puerto Galera, Mindoro island. The city of Batangas is just a 1 hour ferry ride away and its where the Spanish colonizers introduced coffee farming for first time in Philippines. The Barako coffee is sooo good! I bought a package of 350 gr for 178 pesos, which makes around 500 pesos per kilogram (around 10 USD).