On Coffee and Coffee-drinking
By Denver E. Torres

Truly, Coffee is the blood that runs in the veins and arteries of this Archipelago. I agree to the truthfulness of the things mentioned in this ( Coffee: A Celebration of Life  from www.pinoycentric.com) essay.

The essay is well written and the things mentioned in it bring me back to the days of my Childhood. The essay evoked some memories related to Coffee as well as other thoughts. I remember, especially my own personal experiences regarding Coffee. I recall the morning glory-filled-eyes mornings seeing my Mama and Papa conversing silently over cups of coffee early in the morning at our kitchen while the rest of my brothers and sisters are still snoring.

Also, I am transported back to the Mornings at Sta. Cruz, Claveria, Misamis Oriental, my Mother’s natal town. I visit my grandparents on most summers when I was a kid. In Lola’s house, mornings are the busiest because people prepare Coffee and drink them with much enthusiasm and ceremony. I watch them from the long table in the kitchen. I sit down there at the edge of the long bench busy watching my Tiya making fire to boil water.   Coffee, in fact is stapler than rice to them, I guess. I see big jars of Coffee. And, yes they are labeled Nescafe. The hot cups of Coffee are always taken with bread they call patatas among other kinds of bread. I learned later that the patatas they call and we are eating is actually the galletas (egg bread). I do not know if it is a wrong naming by them. Or if simply, patatas is a linguistic variety of galletas.

I am twenty-four now, and I am a lover of Coffee and all about it (maybe, this explains why I have to read Coffee: A Celebration of Life and write something about it).  Even when I need to spendthrift, I cannot help but splurge on 100+ a-cup specialties at Coffee Works, Bo’s Coffee Club or Gazebo, and frequently before at the now-non extant Skizzo Specialty Coffee, all of these shops are in Cagayan de Oro City. When Skizzo closed few years back, I am saddened. I miss the place and still missing it up to now even after two years plus.  Such was a nice place to hang out at. Quiet. Not crowded. Affordable. These three were its best traits.  Plus, the goer gets to see some authentic paintings of local sceneries by local artists. I remember seeing a replica image of the façade and entrance of the St. Augustine Cathedral on a Sunday. The painting is so nice and I wanted to buy it then except that I could not afford it.  It is expensive. But I think it was priced right.

Going to coffeeshops, in my case, is more than just spending or the love of the taste of coffee but, more of a social activity. I think that I spend a lot of money drinking coffee in these shops because I see many nice people around, not to mention the cute ones. Coffee houses are the best places to flirt around. It’s my flirting place.

Coffee-drinking at the Coffeeshops are not necessarily all for flirting with hot and cute guys though. Coffeeshops are best places for serious talk with friends and a great place for business meetings. In fact, I and my literary friends would meet up in these places to workshop our new poems or fictions. They are a perfect place because they are quiet and comfortable.

I have observed that for both the city-dwellers like me and the boondocks people like my grandparents, Coffee or Coffee-drinking is not just a meaningless sipping of something but more of a ceremony to start the day right. It is truly a ritual or an offering of sort to-asking the Deities of the Nature to bless the day with lots of suns and smiles.

Indeed, Coffee or Coffee-drinking is a celebration to most Filipinos. We are a culture of festivities and merriment. And such is a reflection of the type of people we are:  Happy and Optimistic!


Enjoy your Coffee!