Sharing the blessing of heritage coffee and crafts
Six years after the Manila Coffee Festival successfully served its purpose, it has now been integrated into a new and bigger fair to reach more communities that also need to be given attention and support.
The Biyaya Sustainable Living Festival celebrates the culture, creativity, and craftsmanship of native coffee farmers, textile weavers, clothing makers, and various artisans. It also highlights the connection between cultural conservation and environmental protection.
The three-day festival takes place from March 14 to March 16 at Parqal lifestyle complex in Aseana City, Parañaque. It will be open from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Starting the festivities in the late afternoon will be more comfortable for attendees, Biyaya cofounder Rich Watanabe tells Lifestyle. They can enjoy the outdoor offerings and activities under the shade of large overhead tents. At night, they can take delight in the fountain with multicolored lights as the summer breeze blows.
The creation of the Biyaya fair is nothing short of providential and, as its name suggests, a blessing.
Watanabe, who’s been the director of the Manila Coffee Festival since 2019, shares the story of how he started supporting heritage coffee which eventually led to meeting his cofounder, Tati Fortuna, a circular fashion advocate.
In 2009, Watanabe had been working as a trader in the United States when he found out from the New York Coffee Exchange that Philippine coffee was not traded. His disbelief and dismay led to a journey back home that took him to different parts of the country, until he reached the scenic town of Sagada in the Mountain Province.
“People thought I was lost and asked if I needed help,” he recalls at the launch of the Biyaya fair. “I said I was there looking for coffee. They said there’s a little cooperative 15 minutes down the trail, where I’d see a group of women and some coffee.”
When he got to the cooperative, the women had the village coffee roaster called so they could prepare the caffeinated drink for him. He couldn’t forget that experience as it was his first time to see coffee being roasted fresh.
Snapshot
Then the time came for him to have coffee: “I had a sip and it was so good. Not so good in a way that it was very flavorful or it had all the technicalities of aroma. It was so good because when I had a sip of that coffee, I felt I was drinking coffee of the view I was looking at.
“That coffee had a snapshot of the place it was grown,” he now explains. “It was fresh, it had a whiff of pine. I was confused if I was smelling the pine trees or tasting the coffee. It was great coffee. Great coffees take an image of the place they are grown in.”
Watanabe fell in love with Sagada coffee and resolved for it to get global recognition. He got help from farmers like Goad Sibayan, a coowner of Bana’s Coffee Shop, who showed him the coffee trees that were over a century old. The original tree had been planted by a Spanish solider known as Manuel Moldero, who was sent to Sagada in 1896 just before the start of the Philippine Revolution.
Over the years, Watanabe saw the growth in Sagada coffee farming while he started the nonprofit Coffee Heritage Project and set up a coffee shop in Metro Manila. He also initiated efforts to join coffee competitions. Their first attempt in 2017 got the Sagada coffee chosen as the best at the International Contest of Locally Roasted Coffees organized by the Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products.
To celebrate the victory, Watanabe had the Quezon City branch of his Kapetolyo by SGD Coffee shop closed for a cañao. It’s a tradition practiced by the people of Sagada and the rest of the Cordilleras to give thanks to their ancestors. To his surprise, a man who had heard about Sagada coffee being served at the shop turned up and talked about a great-grandfather named Manuel Moldero.
Another descendant of the Spanish soldier who planted the first coffee tree in Sagada is Fortuna. She says during the launch that after Moldero established his coffee plantation, he married an Igorot woman named Diega Sales and they started a family.
She narrates how farming issues such as infestation arose, forcing her ancestors to seek a more suitable location for coffee farming. The family moved to Baguio, where Fortuna’s Lola Filomena was born.
Later on, the Molderos moved again, this time to Kalinga, which eventually became home to the grandchildren. Among them was Fortuna’s mother, Dr. Amelia Moldero Belandres-Miranda. Aside from giving medical services in Kalinga, she also helped preserve and promote its traditions.
Sustainable fabrics
“Seeing my mom serve, honor, respect, protect, and celebrate our culture naturally led me to the same path,” Fortuna says with pride.
Her latest venture, Tahi, is a clothing line made with only sustainable fabrics. It incorporates dead stock and local indigenous weaves for use in everyday clothing pieces that she suggests can form the foundation of a strong capsule wardrobe.
A fashion show featuring Tahi pieces will be one of the highlights at the Biyaya fair. The others include agriculture workshops, artisan craft demonstrations, Baybayin lessons, and traditional tattoo sessions.
“Biyaya is something I see as a great platform for all the different communities from North to South,” Fortuna points out. “We want to connect them with the right market. Because if they thrive and survive, the next generations will be motivated to stay on with the farms.”
Around 75 farmers and weavers will showcase their products, she says, and they get the full sales. Their airfare, accommodation, meals, and transportation needs will be provided as well.
“Biyaya is not just a one-time project,” she stresses. “We want a deeper connection and relationship with communities around the Philippines. So, one of our long-term plans is to establish weaving and craft schools for further training.”
To make the most when attending the Biyaya fair, Watanabe suggests getting the three-day pass, as one visit may not be enough to see all the wares and participate in the activities. A single admission fee costs P500 for adults and P200 for undergraduate students.
“There will be free coffee tasting of Philippine single origin coffees, local chocolates, an assortment of other beverages and food items,” he says.
