The Secret Ingredient In Philippine Coffee Culture Is Community

There’s nothing like a festival to bring a community together. Early this September, coffee and matcha lovers had not one but TWO festivals to choose from: Coffee Plz in Circuit Makati and the Origami Coffee + Matcha Fest in Greenfield District Central Park in Mandaluyong.

Welcome to a weekend of coffee, matcha, and community | Photo: Toyo Specialty Coffee + Matchaf

For hardcore coffee lovers, a reason to come to these festivals is to meet coffee personalities who are either champions on the global coffee stage or who have their own coffee roasteries. Since they are flying to Manila for the festival anyway, some, like 2023 Hong Kong Brewers Cup Champion Zenki Ho, arrived earlier for side activities.

The growing size of the community is hard to miss. Even payment processor Maya, which has been a partner since the first Coffee Plz last year, seems to be in it for the long haul. This year, it hosted a Coffee Plz launch party at shortlisted Asia’s 50 Best Bars Problem Child. Maya’s involvement just shows how large the coffee and matcha communities, along with their purchasing power, have blown up. It’s “brewdol” across both groups, spending not only on drinks, coffee beans, and matcha powder, but on the requisite brewing equipment, accessories, and merchandise that go along with the passion. As promised, Maya gave freebies for new signups, and rewards for those paying with their Maya card or the app during the festival.

It’s “brewdol” across both groups, with people spending not only on drinks, coffee beans, and matcha powder, but on the requisite brewing equipment, accessories, and merchandise that go along with the passion.

Earlier that week, he spent a whole day at Commune in Poblacion. In the morning, he conducted a brewing workshop, not only to make better coffee, but to guide aspiring competitors on what to do during a competition, taking them through the judging score sheet and the finer points of service for their routines. As he is also the owner-roaster of Moonshine Roastery out of Taipei, he gave a sampling of the coffee that he would be serving at his booth at Coffee Plz. This was a nice preview of the weekend to come.

Hong Kong Brewers Cup champion Zenki Ho shares his brewing craft.at Commune | Photo: Coffee Plz

Two festivals, two different experiences

I started the actual weekend at Coffee Plz and it was packed. Still, it was a better experience than their cramped venue last year. 

Coffee Plz promised an experience for the coffee curious. I’d say this was a more curated experience for those who are further along in their deep dive into the coffee rabbit hole. 

The Circuit Makati Ground Floor Breezeway had J-Village filled with Japanese roasters, while the second-floor Activity Center had K-Village roasters from South Korea along with coffee roasters from outside Metro Manila. It was nice to see lesser-known regions like Malaysia and even India having representation at the festival. Local favorites like Yardstick Coffee, The Good Cup Coffee Co., and H Proper Coffee Roasters were out and about in full force, but the idea was to get people into lesser-known neighboring booths to try their coffee. 

Coffee lovers turn out in force at Coffee Plz | Photo: Coffee Plz 

Key to this experience were the ₱100 Coffee Plz tokens, which could be used to get a generous sample of coffee from the booths. I thought the samples were still a bit too much, as it was a challenge to avoid the palpitations from too much caffeine. It was an effective “try-before-you-buy” sip before fully investing in a bag of beans that could cost as high as ₱2,000 and beyond for 100 grams. 

There was a focus on beans and filter coffee, with no espresso machine in sight. This was heaven for those who look for those lovely flavors. I had coffee that had cinnamon, rose tea, grapes, green apples, berries, stone fruit, and much more from different beans prepared with different processes from all over the Philippines and all over the world. 

My impression was that Coffee Plz was very picky with its matcha booths. Purveyors were spread all around the venue, with local favorite Jacques and Matcha, and Singapore-based shop Hello Arigato having long lines waiting for the emerald drinks. 

I was back on Saturday morning to do a guest shift with Bacolod coffee roaster Coffee Culture. What was cool was that there some of us in the local coffee community to pitch in and brew coffee sneaking in some free sips during our time behind the counter. I personally enjoyed having people comment on my brew and learn the finer points of coffee along the way. 

The author brewing with Bacolod’s Coffee Culture during a guest shift | Photo: Coffee Plz

Competition is part of the community

An added attraction at these festivals are the competitions. On Saturday, Coffee Plz hosted the Philippine AeroPress Competition. Competitors were given beans ahead of time and had to develop a recipe with the AeroPress, then brew that on stage.

Sanccio “Ciolo” Detar from Olongapo-based café-roastery Hometown Café brewed himself to the top, winning an all-expense-paid trip to the AeroPress World Championships to be held in Mexico in December. 

Sancio Detar wins the 2026 Philippine AeroPress Championship

On Sunday, I was over at Greenfield to support friends who were competing in the Origami Cup Philippines. In contrast to Coffee Plz, the Coffee + Matcha Fest was conceptualized around the competition. Organized by Laguna-based Toyo Specialty Coffee + Matcha, which also happens to be the local distributor of Origami drippers and drinkware, the idea was to get the community to come in while getting people to cheer for their contestants. 

The Coffee + Matcha Fest was held outdoors and was welcoming for everybody. There were a lot more matcha cafés, with the owners manning the booths, serving matcha and their own signature drinks to long lines of drinkers. 

For coffee, the Origami booth was the centerpiece of the whole festival. With Origami inventor Yasuo Suzuki as the guest of honor, signing drippers and merchandise at the Toyo booth as well as watching over the competition, it felt like a celebration of the brewing community as much as a competition.

Gian James Maagad wins the Philippine Origami CupGian James Maagad from Cagayan de Oro took home the gold as well as a ticket to the Tokyo World Origami Championships in 2027. In a nice surprise, they also gave out trips to Tokyo to first runner-up Orville Villahermosa and second runner-up Joen Ventura to support Gian as he competes on the global stage next year.

There was a more relaxed mix of roasters, and the cafés served espresso-based and dessert drinks. Filter coffee was well represented with Man-apsol out of Baguio, who brought a collective of other roasters from up North. Archers Coffee from the UAE, who had booths at BOTH events, Azura Coffee out of Oman, and Tokyo Base from Japan brought prestige to the Greenfield festival through the coffees they brought over to sample and sell.

Everyone has a place at the table 

At first, I feared that having the two festivals on one weekend would dilute the support and attendance for one or the other. I’m happy to report that that was not the case. 

As someone who’s been part of the coffee community for years, it was refreshing to see the two festivals fully packed, with familiar faces seen visiting on separate days. There is room for everybody, even for two festivals on one weekend. 

For coffee and matcha lovers coming from out of Manila, it was a blessing to be able to hit the two events on one weekend, even one day, should one be brave enough to face the traffic. For the serial coffee competitor, even better, as they could do the AeroPress and Origami competitions one after the other on a single trip. 

A win celebrated by the community gathered around him 

Andre Chanco, one of the organizers of Coffee Plz, summed up the success of the festivals best. His measure of success is standing in the middle of the venue, closing his eyes, and just listening to the crowd. He said that all he heard were people having fun. 

I’d say it was the same thing at Greenfield, especially when the crowd got to loudly cheering for the contestants at the Origami Cup. 

There’s something reassuring about that. The coffee community has grown enough to support two festivals on the same weekend, but it still feels small enough for people to know one another, pitch in, cheer for friends, discover new roasters and happily cross over from one event to the other. 

I’m sure that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the two festivals. There’s this optimism that there will be bigger plans for the coming years. Perhaps more participants, different venues, more brews, and just more people falling down the coffee rabbit hole.