Of the handful of words that’s become a part of our normal vocabulary since the start of the pandemic, perhaps one that I’ve come to appreciate the most is resilience. For some, this word is appealing because of the sense of hope it implies—but let’s not fool ourselves. People do not choose to be resilient; people become resilient because it is the only option for moving forward. My appreciation for this word comes not from the softness of hope, but from the fight for survival.
The mill in Sitio Kisbong is the third mill built by Kalsada Coffee. All Kalsada mills are built on communal property, in which Kalsada rents the land from smallholder farmers that make up a clan.
The Philippines is no stranger to typhoons and the devastations it creates every year. In the Fall of 2020, Typhoon Rolly and Typhoon Ulysses caused millions of dollars worth of damage, displaced thousands of people and also claimed the lives of over 100 people combined. And while the people of the Philippines have called for an end to the romanticization of their resilience, better disaster preparedness, and government accountability, they have continued to move forward as best as they could, all while still navigating the ongoing pandemic. Up in the Cordillera Mountains of Atok, Benguet, where Kalsada Coffee established three of its community mills, the Kalsada team had to think quickly as strong winds and heavy rain from Typhoon Ulysses damaged coffee trees and created an unstable environment for coffee processing. Any processing experiments that they started were put to a halt, and they decided that washing the coffees was the safest processing method to protect the quality of the remaining coffees. The coffees took 4-6 weeks to dry—about an additional two weeks compared to normal circumstances.
So, how does “typhoon processed” coffee taste? Really good, actually. Upon receiving the samples, our green buying team unanimously agreed that the coffees from the 2020-2021 harvest were the best yet, and it was difficult to choose which coffees we would add to our line up. Whether it’s the typhoon conditions that helped maintain quality, or the added stress of “we don’t have the option of producing poorly processed coffee,” the Kalsada team is simply thankful that their coffees have been well received and everyone in the farming communities were safe.
Plastic covers help protect the coffees during the drying process. In preparation for the next harvest, Kalsada is building additional drying beds with sturdier covers in the event that there is another rough typhoon season.
This year, we decided to purchase coffee from Sitio Kisbong to continue our tradition of featuring coffees from different Kalsada communities. In 2019, Kalsada partnered with Bo’s Coffee, a Philippine coffee house chain, to build a wet mill in Sitio Kisbong. It’s one of the first communities Kalsada purchased coffee from back in 2014, and up until the mill was built, Kisbong coffees were being processed and combined with the Sitio Belis lot. There are now 33 farmer families who contribute to Sitio Kisbong’s harvest, and since the mill was built, the farmers’ production volume has doubled!
The project between Kalsada and Bo’s Coffee is divided into 3 phases. With the first phase of building the mill now completed, the last two phases are currently in the works in preparation for the 2021-2022 harvest. These last two phases will involve creating more space to accommodate more coffee to be processed and building a weatherproof drying space that can withstand typhoons and allow for more consistent drying.
As we hope for a more smooth sailing harvest season this year for the Kalsada farmers in Benguet, we’ll be celebrating their success from last year’s harvest by enjoying this lively coffee from Sitio Kisbong. It has a sweetness akin to cotton candy grape, a texture reminiscent of tamarind, and a finishing note that reminds us of milk tea. Its hints of fruit and sweet and silky texture and aftertaste make it a coffee that’s really easy to drink!
