Kapeng Barako

Photo c/o lovetravelandfood.com

Mahilig ka ba sa kape gaya ng mga Kiwi? Ilang tasa ng kape ang iyong ininom kada araw?  I had the impression that Kiwis would favor tea over coffee.  But when I came here in 2008, I was amazed at how much coffee they consumed.  Cafes and coffeehouses were everywhere (inside malls or stand alone) with motorized coffee pit stops along the major roads.

However by 2017, in an article on Stuff, Kiwis drink less coffee than you might think.  We only consume 3.7 kg. per person a year and Australians even less at 3.0. Surprisingly the USA was only slightly ahead of us at 4.2 and the UK at 2.8 per capita per year.  The top five coffee drinkers are Finland 12.0, Norway 9.9, Iceland 9.0, Denmark 8.7, and the Netherlands 8.4.  There must be a connection between drinking coffee and the cold weather of these European countries.

These are the rest of the countries in the world's 20 biggest coffee drinkers: Sweden 8.2, Switzerland 7.9, Belgium 6.8, Luxembourg 6.5, Canada 6.2, Bosnia-Herzegovina 6.1, Austria 5.9, Italy 5.8, Slovenia 5.8, Brazil 5.5, Germany, 5.5, Greece 5.4, France 5.1, Croatia 4.9, and Cyprus 4.8.  Hopefully, the people in-charge of the coffee industry in the Philippines are aware of these numbers, so they can focus their marketing initiatives on these countries.

The coffee beans here in Aotearoa New Zealand are sourced from Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Kenya, Honduras, and Mexico. I've seen Vietnamese coffee beans being advertised and Timor-Leste has joined the club as the newest source of coffee beans. I'm wishing to see Philippine coffee beans here sometime in the future. I'm sure it's going to happen.

Kapeng Barako is a variety of coffee grown in the Philippines, primarily in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite.  It belong to the species Coffea liberica. Barako is the Filipino term for a male stud animal.  The term has also become associated with the image of a tough man.

During the late 19th century, the Philippines was the world's 4th biggest exporter of coffee beans.  Unfortunately the coffee rust that hit Brazil, Africa and Java also hit the country.  Today, the Philippines ranks 110th in the world in terms of coffee production.  The top producers are 1-Brazil, 2-Vietnam, and 3-Colombia and Mexico.  The popularity of coffee as a drink has only increased year on and year on.  A famous quote from Thomas Jefferson sums up its popularity---"coffee, the favourite drink of the civilised world."