That sweet aroma to start your day

Like millions of working adults, I sit  at my desk - Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm in what we adults call the work week. Like the countless millions before the day can start a cup of coffee usually jump starts and rejuvenates the soul to face the task ahead.

Drinking a cup of my favorite brew, I sometimes reminisce about my childhood in Kalinga, once known for its lush coffee plantations and at one point in time among the top coffee bean suppliers. The variation of altitude all four varieties of coffee grow well. The people of Kalinga are known to be some of the best brewers in the country, especially my grandmother. She didn’t know the difference from one variety from another, there was no Robusta or Arabica, she simply called it “kape”. I remember as a child, in slippers , we would hike the mountains to harvest coffee beans, back then picking and sorting coffee beans in Kalinga were assigned to only the women. It may have looked easy but it actually involves certain traditional practices that were observed. We use the sun to dry the beans and turn it all day, then manually separate the coating to get the now referred “green coffee” by using a tool called “bayo” . Every morning she would roast and the aroma would fill the air, a smell that now as an adult makes me think back to those simpler times with my grandmother, every time someone brews a fresh pot of coffee. Nothing was wasted, the extra beans we would bring back into the market, back then they didn’t sell the coffee beans by the kilo but by “ganta” or “salop,” measured using a large can of sardine. We would exchange for other items , such as sugar. A simple barter system where everyone would go home happy at the end of the day.

Such wonderful memories with each sip from a simple cup of coffee.