Coffee book wins award

Barako, The Big Bean by Chit Juan and Alejandro Mojica, Ph. D. (Anvil, 2005) won the prestigious Gintong Aklat Award 2006 (Trade Books category), for its valuable information on coffee growing, preparation and detailed instructions on how to start a coffee farm.

The book guides would-be coffee plan-ters on the process of growing the big bean, known locally as the Barako – from the sowing of seeds, tending of the seedlings, pruning, to the handpicking of the beans for harvest. It contains a background on the Philippine coffee industry, its current status and its potential. For those interested in starting their own barista business, some coffee recipes are an added bonus.

The underlying premise of the book is found in this question posed in the intro-duction: "We are a coffee-drinking people – from the yuppie who must have his shot of espresso before his first meeting in the morning to the jeepney driver who finds satisfaction in dunking his first two pieces of hot pan de sal in a steaming cup of barako for breakfast before hitting the road. But how many bother to know more about their favorite beverage – from how the coffee bean is planted and grown to how it is harvested, roasted and brewed?" The authors also discuss extensively the efforts of their group, the National Coffee Development Board, to develop coffee-growing into the robust industry it was in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Philippines, they noted, was a top exporter of the Barako coffee.

Chit Juan is the CEO of Figaro Coffee Co. and executive director of the Figaro Foundation Corp. She is also co-chairman of the National Coffee Development Board. Alejandro Mojica is director for research and professor at the Cavite State University, the national research center for coffee. He is also executive director of the Cavite Coffee Development Board and a member of the National Coffee Development Board.