MANILA, Philippines - Three days of fun, learning and celebration marked the first-ever interactive Nescafé Classic First Pick Li’l Beanie’s Coffee Farm last March 5-7 at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City.
Mall goers trooped to the Trinoma Activity Center to participate in educational activities, join trivia quizzes, win exciting prizes and enjoy celebrity performances, all in commemoration of the first coffee harvest of the season.
The event was meant to educate the public how coffee beans are grown, harvested, processed and sold — until they finally end up as a delicious cup of coffee that Filipinos love. After all, coffee is the second most consumed beverage in the Philippines — second only to water.
It was also a chance for the public to better appreciate the hard work that Filipino farmers put in just to make sure we all enjoy our coffee whenever we want it. Participants learned about the beneficial partnership between coffee farmers and Nescafé and also had the chance do their part in contributing to the welfare of Filipino farmers.
This was made possible at the Adoption Barn, one of the interactive stations during the event, where participants were able to “adopt” a coffee seedling that would be contributed to the seedling stock of a Filipino coffee farmer.
The first station is the Planting Station, where participants learned how the delicious cup of Nescafé that they enjoy starts out as a coffee bean, then grows into a seedling, and finally, into a coffee tree with ripe, red cherries.
At the second station, the Picking Post, participants learned that only the red ripe coffee cherries are picked from the trees. They had the option to play the Splat the Berry Borer Game, which was played on a video wall that showed an interactive, animated coffee tree ready for picking.
Berry borers are insects that destroy coffee berries by eating their way through the fruits and making them unsuitable for use in coffee making. In the animated, interactive game, participants had 30 seconds to splat the berry borers with their palms to keep the insects from destroying the berries. Participants who earned 40 points or higher within 30 seconds received a special prize.
The third station, the Buying Station, taught participants how to separate “floaters” from “sinkers.” The process of separation involved putting the ripe coffee berries (also referred to as coffee “beans”) into a bowl of water.
The floaters are coffee beans that have been damaged by berry borers or defective in other ways. These are unfit for the coffee making process and discarded. The sinkers, on the other hand, are whole, intact beans kept for use in the coffee-making process. Participants who were able to pick out four floaters or less are given a special prize.
However, the quality control process at the Buying Station did not end there. After the sinkers were dried in preparation for roasting, they underwent another sorting process. At this stage, more beans were discarded if they are found to be defective.
Participants were asked to do a Sorting Game on a magnetic board, which had illustrated slots where coffee bean-shaped stick-ons (showing defective beans as well as a good bean) were placed according to their quality.
Participants sorted the beans and places the Stinky Beanie, Infested Beanie, Immature Beanie, Broken Beanie, Admixture, Husk Fragment, Moldy Beanie, Dried Cherry, and Black Beanie onto their respective slots. There was also an extra slot for foreign matter or debris that had to be discarded.
The happy-looking Good Beanie, which was fit for the roasting process, also went into its own slot. The next station was the Tasting Patio, where the participants were finally able to enjoy the aroma and delicious flavor of Nescafé Classic First Pick. They were given hot and fresh cups of coffee that perked them up after all the activity went through.
After enjoying their coffee, participants moved on to the last station, the Adoption Barn. At this station, they had the option to “adopt” a Li’l Beanie and in doing so, contribute a seedling to a Filipino farmer.
All they have to do was purchase a jar of Nescafé Classic First Pick and enter the special code — called the Li’l Beanie Code — and enter that code in the Nescafé First Pick website (www.nescafe.com.ph/firstpick). Once the code was entered, they were already able to adopt a Li’l Beanie and plant that Li’l Beanie in a virtual coffee farm in the website.
This Li’l Beanie is a virtual coffee bean and the online version of the real coffee seedling that the participant has actually adopted. This real coffee seedling goes to a Filipino coffee farmer.
Those who were not able to attend the Trinoma festivities can still adopt a Li’l Beanie and help Flipino coffee farmers. Simply purchase a jar of Nescafé First Pick, take note of the Li’l Beanie code stamped at the back of the jar, and enter that code in the First Pick website.
“It is a simple yet special way of giving back to the coffee farmers who have worked hard to produce the delicious and aromatic coffee that we savor everyday,” said John Miller, president of Nestlé Philippines Inc.
“For us at Nestlé, creating shared value means looking at the multiple points where we touch society and making long-term investments that both benefit the public and our shareholders,” Miller added.
Miller and Nestle Coffee Business Unit head Christoph Stern led the ceremonial tree-planting at the Li’l Beanie Coffee Farm.