Toro y moi at the listening party hosted by tunnel records after doing a beach cleanup with volunteers

Chaz Bear, known by his stage name Toro y Moi, released his eighth studio record, HOLE ERTH, early last month. He’s done a few things to celebrate the launch of his new album, like doing a beach clean-up with Usal Project near our café on Taraval St. and throwing a listening party with our neighbors, Tunnel Records. BBut there’s one more way Chaz wanted to keep the celebration going—he and his team reached out to us about collaborating on a coffee release. Naturally, we said yes! We selected an origin that’s not only a crowd favorite but also meaningful to both Andytown and Chaz’s heritage: the Philippines.

Sitio Belis community. to the bottom right, you can see the mill. Photo by jl Javier

If you’ve been following Andytown for a while now, you know that we’ve been working with Kalsada Coffee Company in the Philippines for almost 6 years and counting. During my first visit in 2023, I was able to visit all of Kalsada’s mills and meet some of the farmers in Benguet and Bukidnon. Earlier this year, I was fortunate to visit again and learn about the ongoing improvements Kalsada is making, especially in Benguet.

kalsada staff and lead staff at belis mill, left to right. Top—Moi, Mike, Paus, Uncle Bunsoy, Raffy, Joy; Bottom Diosa, Tere, Grace, Auntie Asthrine

Tere, a co-founder and Country Director of Kalsada, oversees the mill, while Auntie Asthrine, a farmer and the mill manager, runs operations. Her daughter, Grace, recently received a degree in agribusiness and joined the Kalsada team as a Field Officer.
photo by JL javier

Sitio Belis is a small community in Benguet, where Kalsada built its first mill on ancestral lands owned by the community. Farmers had grown coffee since WWII, but there was no standard for picking and processing. As a result, quality was inconsistent, and it was sold for low prices at the local market. In the beginning, when Kalsada met with dozens of farmers to understand coffee farming in the area and the needs of farmers, Kalsada realized that building a centralized, community wet mill would allow farmers to focus on crop management, harvesting, and producing sweeter coffee cherries. In turn, Kalsada could focus on post-harvest procedures that could improve overall coffee quality and, in turn, help farmers receive higher prices for their hard work. While Belis occasionally produces honey and natural processed coffees for local Philippine coffee roasters, it mainly produces washed coffees. As production has increased, more drying beds have been built.

when walking down from the center of belis, you get a view of the drying space

Kalsada has only continued to grow over the last decade. A few years after the Sitio Belis mill was built, the Sitio Naguey mill was built less than a mile away. Initially, farmers from Naguey were carrying their cherries up the steep hill to Belis for processing. Still, farmers said trekking through the rugged terrain was difficult, and having a closer mill would make it easier to sell cherries to Kalsada. So, the Naguey mill was established.

Drying space in sitio naguey has become limited due to the increase of cherry production, and the mill that was once exclusively using the natural process has switched to washed processing to be able to produce more coffee. they hope to build more drying space in the near future.

Naguey is an excellent place for natural processing because of all the sunlight it receives, and for a while, it was almost exclusively producing natural coffees. However, as production has grown and improved, Naguey has run out of drying space. Because washed coffees take less time to produce, the Kalsada team and mill manager have decided to wash all of their coffees. The washed process takes less time and less drying space, and by pivoting to this process, Naguey can produce more coffee. Naguey will continue to produce washed coffees until they can build more drying space. We all love naturals, but sometimes it’s easy to forget that washing is often the most sustainable way to produce coffee. Because the Naguey washed profile is similar to Belis, their exported lots were blended under Belis this year to make selling to interested coffee buyers easier.

at the halfway point from belis to naguey, the area to right that is lined with coffee trees will be redeveloped to serve as kalsada's model farm, mEANT TO SERVE AS AN EXAMPLE FOR LOCAL FARMS LOOKING TO IMPROVE THEIR FARMS.

Between Belis and Naguey, a new project is being developed: the Kalsada team is starting to build a model farm. Working closely with long-time farmer partners, this model farm will serve as an example to other farmers looking to learn and improve their farms. Until recently, many farmers had been hesitant to stump trees or replace old ones, and this, combined with disastrous tropical storms that destroyed trees, led to a devastatingly low harvest several years ago. Kalsada hopes that this model farm will encourage farmers to adopt new practices to improve and increase their harvests. Nonetheless, farmers in Benguet have learned their hard lessons and bounced back. The 2023-2024 harvest had the highest recovery in Kalsada’s history, meaning that farmers are taking better care of their trees, and mill workers are doing an excellent job processing coffee.

Kalsada farmers from belis, naguey, and kisbong gathered together for Kalsada’s 10 year anniversary party

We’ve carried at least one coffee from every Kalsada mill in Benguet and Bukidnon. However, over the last few years, we’ve featured washed coffee from Sitio Belis, the first Philippine coffee on Andytown’s menu. We believe this coffee is a solid representation of high-quality coffee in Benguet, and we hope it becomes a recognizable flavor profile for coffee lovers. This is a comforting coffee with notes of citrus, muscovado sugar, and latik–toasted coconut milk curds used as a topping in Filipino desserts. We chose this coffee for the Toro y Moi collaboration because of its approachability. This year, we roasted it just a touch lighter so that music fans can easily prepare and enjoy this coffee black while jamming to his new record.