Where love, land, and legacy meet in a single sip.
There is a place in the northern Philippines where the mountains hold clouds like secrets, where pine trees whisper to the wind in a language older than memory, and where — if you listen closely — the earth itself seems to hum with something ancient and tender.
That place is Sagada. And it grows one of the rarest, most beautiful coffees you will ever taste.
A Bean Born from a Love Story
Every great coffee has an origin. But few begin with a romance.
In the late 1890s, a retired Spanish soldier named Jaime Masferré — a Catalan far from home — found himself in the misty highlands of the Cordillera. He had served as a commander of the Guardia Civil, but it wasn't duty that kept him in the mountains. It was love. He married Mercedes Cunyap Langkew, a woman of Sagada, and together they settled in the town of Batalao.
On that land, Jaime planted arabica coffee seedlings — likely carried up from the lower elevations of Benguet. He couldn't have known it then, but those small, hopeful plants would take root in more than just soil. They would become part of a community's identity, its culture, its way of being in the world.
Their son, Eduardo Masferré, would grow up to become the Father of Philippine Photography — the man whose black-and-white portraits gave the world its first intimate glimpse of Cordilleran life. But long before Eduardo picked up a camera, his father had already been framing something beautiful: a coffee tradition born where Spanish grit met Igorot grace.
Planted by Friendship, Spread by Trust
The story doesn't end with one family.
A Japanese carpenter named Okoi, working alongside American missionaries in the village of Fidelisan, became friends with the Masferré family. Through that bond — quiet, sincere, built on shared meals and honest labor — Okoi received coffee seedlings and carried them north.
He planted them in Fidelisan, where some of those original trees still stand today, over a century old, their roots gripping ancient stone, still bearing fruit. Still giving.
This is what makes Sagada coffee different from anything else you'll find in a cup. It wasn't born from industry or commerce. It was spread through friendship. Through community. Through the kind of trust that only grows when people plant things together — not for profit, but for the future.
The Coffee Where You Must Plant Trees to Get Married
Here is a detail so beautiful it almost sounds like fiction:
In Sagada, a municipal ordinance requires every household to plant at least five coffee trees. But it goes even further. Before a couple can receive their marriage license, they must first plant the same number of trees.
Read that again. Before you say I do, you must first put something living into the ground.
There is no more poetic requirement for love than this — a promise not only to each other, but to the earth, to the community, to the generations that will harvest what you've planted long after you're gone. In Sagada, commitment isn't just spoken. It's rooted.
What It Tastes Like (and Why It's So Rare)
Sagada Arabica, the Typica variety, is grown at 1,300 to 1,400 meters above sea level in the cool, misty embrace of the Cordillera highlands. The beans are handpicked and handprocessed, following rhythms that respect the phases of the moon and the counsel of elders.
The result is a cup that is sweet and nutty, with a medium body and gentle acidity — layered with hints of chocolate, fresh tobacco, and a fleeting floral note that blooms and disappears like mountain fog at sunrise. It is not loud coffee. It is intimate coffee. The kind that asks you to slow down and pay attention.
And it is rare. There are no sprawling industrial plantations here. Sagada coffee is grown in backyard gardens and small family plots, tucked between vegetables and fruit trees in traditional agroforestry systems. The Applai and Kankanaey peoples who tend these gardens don't separate coffee from life — it is part of the daily rhythm, a brew shared at dawn, a quiet act of welcome.
This scarcity is precisely why every cup matters. When you drink Sagada coffee, you aren't just having your morning pick-me-up. You're holding a piece of something that very few people in the world will ever experience.
World-Class, World-Recognized
In 2017, Sagada coffee stepped onto the global stage. Local farmer Goad Sibayan's Bana's Coffee won the prestigious Médaille Gourmet at the International Contest of Coffees Roasted in their Countries of Origin, organized by the AVPA in Paris.
Paris. Where the world's finest flavors are judged. And a humble bean from a Filipino mountain farmer's backyard held its own.
This wasn't the result of fancy marketing or industrial-scale processing. It was the product of centuries-old traditions, volcanic soil, cool mountain air, and a people who treat their coffee trees the way they treat family — with patience, reverence, and care.
Why We're Proud to Serve It
At Bo's Coffee Calamba, Sagada is more than a menu item. It's a connection.
When our baristas prepare a cup of Sagada drip coffee or pull a shot from these single-origin beans, they're participating in a chain that stretches back to a love story in the 1890s, through a Japanese carpenter's quiet friendship, through the hands of women who have harvested these beans for generations, and through the vows of young couples who planted trees before they planted their futures together.
We believe Philippine coffee deserves the spotlight. And Sagada is perhaps the brightest, most moving example of why.
How to Experience It
Next time you visit us at Bo's Coffee Calamba, ask for the Sagada. Don't rush it. Let the first sip sit on your tongue. Notice the sweetness, the nuttiness, the ghost of chocolate.
And as you drink, remember: someone planted a tree for this. Maybe before their wedding. Maybe beside a friend. Maybe a hundred years ago on a misty hillside, hoping — as all farmers and all lovers hope — that something beautiful would grow.
Bo's Coffee Calamba is the first Bo's Coffee franchise in the province of Laguna, located along the National Highway in Calamba City. We proudly serve Philippine single-origin coffees including Sagada, Mt. Apo, and more. Visit us — or swing by our drive-thru — and taste the story for yourself.
Have you tried our Sagada coffee? Tag us on social media and share your experience.
