While it isn’t everything, we would argue that properly roasted, fresh coffee beans make up about 90 percent of a cafe’s potential for success. Frankly, the burnt-tire notes of mass-produced coffees used by certain popular chains simply won’t cut it for any self-respecting startup hoping to call itself a café.
Our point being: There are a lot of local coffee suppliers that put in so much care in roasting and supplying coffee that won’t hurt your wallet. We have compiled a list of such suppliers—at different price points and in consideration of various flavor profiles, origins, and your coffee business’s needs (that is, whether you want to sell specialty or commercial coffee).
Before we get into the coffee suppliers list, it’s worth mentioning that a compilation of coffee suppliers in the Philippines wouldn’t be complete without Kalsada Coffee, a top exporter and pioneer in Philippine specialty coffee. The country’s first supplier of Philippine specialty coffee to American coffee giant Blue Bottle now only offers a limited amount of green coffee beans, which you can order by sending an email to hello@kalsada.com.
Plain Sight Coffee
A trusted source for anyone looking to try brewing or selling specialty coffee, Plain Sight Coffee carries decaf, blends, and single origin coffees, sourced locally and from locations such as Brazil, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. If you plan for your business to focus on specific flavor profiles, you can choose from their pre-made espresso blends; for pour-over and other brewing methods, you can choose from their lineup of filter coffee.
In any case, you can certainly customize your orders according to the kind of coffee business you want to put up, as Plain Sight Coffee lets you fill out a form asking exactly for these details: business type, monthly volume requirement, and anything else you want them to know about your business. The company also offers comprehensive barista training as well as sets you up with the right equipment based on your budget.
Order here if you: Are starting a specialty coffee business and need some help with barista training and equipment sourcing
Price range: P490 (200 grams) to P1,500 (for a set of two 200-gram packs)
What they offer: Light roasts from Benguet (Caliking, produced in collaboration with Kalsada), medium-bodied dark roasts (Bonfire blend from Guatemala and Brazil), sweet light roasts with high acidity (Ethiopia Tabe Burka, Kenya Kahawa Bora)
How to order: For wholesale orders, fill out this form. For retail orders, click here
Delivery time: One to three working days for orders within Metro Manila, free shipping for a minimum order amount of P1,500; two to seven working days for orders outside Metro Manila, free shipping for a minimum order amount of P2,000
Curve Coffee Collaborators
When coffee suppliers and companies claim that they champion the coffee farmers they work with, the said advocacy doesn’t usually appear as explicitly as it does as in Curve Coffee’s, whose coffees not only feature the faces of their farmers on their packaging but are also named after the farmers responsible for them.
Curve Coffee highlights the best of Philippine specialty coffee, with their most recent line of beans spotlighting the winners at the recently concluded Philippine Coffee Quality Competition (PCQC). These award-winning beans from Davao del Sur, Ilocos Sur, Benguet, and Bukidnon are pricier than the usual specialty Philippine coffee, but they’re worth trying out for their quality and flavor profiles that are unique to Philippine specialty coffee.
Order here if you: Are looking for high-grade Philippine specialty coffee
Price range: P390 to P1,860 for 250 grams
What they offer: Sweet arabica varieties (Bourbon, Typica), PCQC green coffee beans, cold brew blends
How to order: For wholesale orders, fill out this form. For retail orders, click here
Delivery time: Five to seven days
Coffeellera
For a wider selection of beans, you can try ordering from Coffeellera, which, on top of single origin Philippine coffee beans, offers imported coffee and commercial coffee. The latter, roasted in bulk, comes in flavored varieties that blend arabica and robusta—a good option to look into if you plan to produce larger batches of coffee for the mass market at a relatively low cost.
If commercial dark roasts aren’t what you’re looking for, again, Coffeellera has an impressive line of single origin Philippine coffee from Bukidnon, Mt. Apo, and Tublay as well as a house blend that mixes single origin arabica and single origin robusta.
Order here if you: Are looking for a relatively inexpensive supplier of commercial beans but are also interested in single origin Philippine coffee
Price range: P370 to P435 for 250 grams
What they offer: Hazelnut-flavored dark roast arabica and robusta blends from Baguio, commercial-grade arabica, single origin robusta from Ifugao and Kalinga, espresso blends, green coffee beans
How to order: For wholesale orders, fill out this form. For retail orders, click here
Delivery time: One to three days for orders within Luzon; five to seven days for orders within Visayas and Mindanao. For shipping fee rates, click here
Escolta Coffee Company
As from its name, this roaster takes much inspiration from the neighborhood in which it is based, standing as a staple in First United Building’s HUB: Make Lab and supplying coffee to beloved Manila cafés such as Blocleaf Café. With a focused and reliable lineup of single origin Philippine specialty coffee (many of them sourced from Kalsada) at its forefront, Escolta Coffee is a good option for anyone aiming for a similarly focused menu built around Philippine coffee or for businesses looking to incorporate a few specialty coffees to their menu.
Order here if you: Are looking for mid-range, expertly roasted Philippine specialty coffee
Price range: P470 to P980 for 250 grams
What they offer: Premium-grade medium roast arabica (Benguet) and robusta (Bukidnon) blends, medium roast single origin arabica from Barangay Caliking, Benguet that can be brewed for espresso or cold brew; drip bags, cascara tea
How to order: For wholesale orders, check their price list here, and then send an email to sales@escoltacoffee.co. For small orders, click here
Delivery time: Two to three days for orders within Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, and Rizal, free shipping for retail orders P3,000 and above; three to five days for orders outside the aforementioned locations, free shipping for retail orders P5,000 and above
Everyday Coffee Roasters
For even more varieties of specialty coffee, consider ordering from Everyday Coffee Roasters. It offers single origin coffees from Panama, Indonesia, China, and Bolivia, among other renowned coffee regions from East Asia, Central America, and of course, Africa. The idea is that any home brewer can have immediate access to freshly roasted beans (roasted upon order, then delivered within 48 hours*) from the best—often rare and obscure—coffee producers in the world. Most of these, however, are offered as limited-release, coming in small batches that are usually sold out in weeks.
Order here if you: Are looking for the best of specialty coffee from different parts of the world
Price range: P550 to P1,850 for 200 grams
What they offer: Sweet, nutty Catimor beans from Yunnan, floral, tea-like Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans, seasonal espresso blends from Central America, drip kits, brew bags
How to order: For wholesale orders, fill out this form. For retail orders, click here
Delivery time: Within 48 hours for orders within Metro Manila*, free shipping; three to five days for orders outside of Metro Manila. Check this chart for more details.