The Island of the Philippines was ones the fourth largest coffee producer of coffee, but because of the coffee rust and insect infestation, a lot of coffee trees died causing to economic fall in the Philippine coffee production. By the time the Philippines manage to escalate in the 1960s, a new challenge occurs when there is a stop of coffee export from the Philippines due to the sudden proliferation of coffee farms that resulted in a surplus in the world market. But now the Philippines were trying to bring back their regime by uplifting the native coffee farmers in the mountainous region of Sagada. A hidden gem of roastery on the top of the mountain where natives are striving to produce a top quality coffee.
Sagada is a small town situated in the Cordillera Mountain Province. The municipality is a tourist destination, known for their hanging coffins, beautiful waterfalls, and caves which you can explore. Due to these natural wonders, Sagada is one of the best adventure destinations and added to your experience the SGD Coffee Heritage House is a must visit in the area.
The Coffee Heritage House in Sagada Mountain province is a newly opened roastery offering a quality cup of coffee that is freshly harvested by the local farmers. Coffee Heritage House also offers B&B-hostel, which is great to check in for tourist when visiting Sagada. But of course, aside from the breathtaking view, wanderlust adventure, native cuisine, you cannot leave the town without tasting their very own coffee.
The spouse Rich and Margarette Watanabe owners of the Coffee heritage House is not a native from Sagada, but they have been supporting the local coffee farmers in the town for a couple of years now through their Coffee Heritage Project. The project helps the native farmers of Sagada plant Arabica coffee beans, cultivate, harvest the berries, and Coffee Heritage directly buys the coffee beans from the farmers at a fair trade price. All the coffee beans they have bought from the local farmers are the ones serve and roasted at the SGD Coffee Roastery which already has four locations in the Philipines, and in Sagada is their newest location of the brand.
SGD Coffee aims to bring a different coffee experience to coffee aficionados through Sagada coffee. Margaret says, ” “We want to cater to music and coffee aficionados who want a more personalized coffee service… That’s really the intention of the Coffee Roastery, to provide everybody, those who are very particular about their coffee, for those who want a certain flavor profile just for you.” The only thing missing, for now, is the roasting facility which is still in the process of being set up. Margaret says, “The experience we want our customers to have is when you sit down, you can have a good cup of coffee, then just close your eyes and relax and enjoy the good music.”
SGD is not all about business for one of their goals is to support and uplift the lives of the native coffee farmers in Sagada through coffee production. Margaret says, “Since it’s a passion project, part of it is to give back and make sure that (the farmers) earn from it… It might be hard for us but this is what we want for the farmers, for them to be able to send their kids to a good school, to be able to feed their children with good food, have money for medicine and hospitalization.”
Article source news.abs-cbn.com
