Kubo Coffee

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Kubo Coffee Coffee is meaningful. http://kubo.coffee

It’s been a while since we’ve done collaborations so we’re grateful to be sharing our booth with BASIS COFFEE OUTPOST ☕️...
20/08/2026

It’s been a while since we’ve done collaborations so we’re grateful to be sharing our booth with BASIS COFFEE OUTPOST ☕️ for this year’s much awaited on September 5 and 6 at Greenfield District, Mandaluyong City.

Basis will be serving up espresso-based classics using our Meryenda blend and some of their crowd favorite signatures. We’ll be manning the brew bar and also share them with beloved Kapitbahays who will be doing takeovers on the 6th (Sunday).

It’ll be two days of coffee and matcha, cheers for competitors, and plain ol’ hanging out (and budol) IRL on that weekend. Takits!

PS. We might have some surprise limited retail bean drops there.

PPS. Can you guess who our guest brewers will be? COMMENT down below. First to get name/s right gets a cup on the house! 🛖

We want to tell you about a bag of coffee and also about a school in Bensa.The bag first: this is the Ethiopia Ardent Si...
27/07/2026

We want to tell you about a bag of coffee and also about a school in Bensa.

The bag first: this is the Ethiopia Ardent Sidama Oloncho G1, sourced from Ardent Coffee Export’s Shantagolbe processing site in Bensa, Sidama, at 2,000-2,400 masl, which is one of the highest-altitude stations in the region.¹ In Ethiopia, G1 means fewer than 3 defects per 300 grams, a cup score above 85, and a grading system that weighs how the coffee actually tastes more than how it looks.² Sidama is, alongside Harrar and Yirgacheffe, one of Ethiopia’s 3 trademarked coffee regions, and the source of most of its highest-grade lots.³

In the cup, you’re looking for what washed Sidama at altitude is known for: fine acidity, floral aromatics, citrus fruits, stone fruit, and a finish that earns its stay.⁴

Now, the school: Ardent Coffee Export was founded in 2017 by Ashenafi Argaw, who became, in 2025, the first president of the Specialty Coffee Association of Ethiopia.⁵ In Bensa, Ardent has built the Ardent School for children of local coffee producers, an orphanage currently caring for over 70 children, widow support programs, and rural roads that help farmers actually get their coffee to market.⁶ They pay premiums back to farmers and maintain full traceability from cherry selection through export. In 2020, JBC Roasters scored 97 points with an Ardent green lot.⁷

This is why we chose this lot. Not because it was easy to find or easy to explain, but because when we trace it all the way back, we like what we find: people who also decided that their community was part of why a product is good.

The Ardent Sidama Oloncho G1 is available now. Come find it through the LINK IN OUR BIO. 🛖

References:
¹Ardent Coffee Export. (2025). Ardent Coffee Export company profile [Internal company document]. Ardent Coffee Export.
²Ethio Coffee. (2026, March). Green coffee defects: Buyer’s guide to quality control. Ethio Coffee. https://ethio.coffee
³Taylors, K. (2020, June). Everything you need to know about coffee from Sidama, Ethiopia. Perfect Daily Grind. https://perfectdailygrind.com/2020/06/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coffee-from-sidama-ethiopia/
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Coffee language can feel like a locked door until someone hands you the key. So here’s ours:Some of the words on this li...
15/07/2026

Coffee language can feel like a locked door until someone hands you the key. So here’s ours:

Some of the words on this list are more than café jargon. They’re pulled straight from the SCA’s Coffee Value Assessment (CVA)* system, which is the official framework judges use to evaluate coffee at competitions like the World Brewers Cup: Aroma, Flavor, Acidity, Sweetness, Mouthfeel, Aftertaste, and Overall. They’re not just fancy add-ons. They hold meaning to a shared vocabulary meant to make coffee easier to talk about.

But we noticed something else too: not every “fancy” phrase is actually more accurate. Some just sound nicer and that’s worth naming because language should invite people into coffee. Language is not there to quietly test whether people already belong.

So, ask us the “beginner” question. Say “it tastes weird” instead of reaching for a fancier word. Use an honest language and we’ll meet you there, every time. 🛖

*Coffee terminology cross-referenced with the Specialty Coffee Association’s Coffee Value Assessment System (sca.coffee/value-assessment) and the 2026 World Brewers Cup Official Rules and Regulations.

📷: Patricia Isabelle

Some days call for the coffee that pushes limits. Other days—rather, most days—call for the one that simply shows up.Tha...
01/07/2026

Some days call for the coffee that pushes limits. Other days—rather, most days—call for the one that simply shows up.

That's what chocolatey and nutty coffees have always done best. Chaya, C. et al. (2022) found that chocolate, nutty, and sweet-forward coffees pair more reliably across food and mood than their bright, floral counterparts.¹ This is not because they're less complex, but because they're built for consistency. Lower acidity, a rounder body, a finish that lingers instead of demanding attention.²

We've spent the last week thinking a lot about what reliability means—in coffee, and beyond it. So, this post isn't really about trends, or even about beans. It's about choosing the steady thing on purpose. Showing up again, gently, on our own terms.

Altanghap and Marites Arellano are both brewing right now—one for your espresso days and one for your slow filter mornings.

Link in bio when you're ready. No rush. We'll be here. Padayón lang. 🛖

¹ Chaya, C. et al., "Pairing coffee with basic tastes and real foods changes perceived sensory characteristics and consumer liking," Food Quality and Preference (ScienceDirect, 2022).
² Latitude 23.5 Coffee & Tea, "Coffee Flavor Notes Explained: What Chocolatey, Nutty, Bright, and Smooth Really Mean."

There is a particular kind of grief that has nothing to do with death. It is the grief of finding out that someone you l...
22/06/2026

There is a particular kind of grief that has nothing to do with death. It is the grief of finding out that someone you let into your life was never quite who they said they were. We gave this person what we give to few: trust, name, and the people we love. We did this because we believed them and wanted to believe that good faith is returned in kind. Most of us do, as people who genuinely stand on community, transparency, and quality of relationships.

We won't list every claim that has reached us. We will say this: the concerns are not from one person but from several, and they are not small. Some transactions, it seems, were carried out in our shadow, with our name lending a credibility that was never authorized.

There is no triumph in being betrayed, only a quiet, specific ache of having believed in someone who, as it turns out, may have counted on being defended. But silence has its own cost.

If people trusted this person partly because they trusted us, then our silence becomes part of the deception. We would rather speak plainly now than let that continue. So let us be plain: this person does not speak for us. They do not act on our behalf. Nothing they have promised, sold, or agreed to carries our endorsement now and before.

We are not asking for outrage. We are asking for care. We are living in an age that confuses accountability with spectacle, and we want no part of the latter. What we want is simpler: that we ask questions, that we verify, and that we extend trust thoughtfully rather than automatically.

Trust is still one of the better things we give each other. But it should walk hand in hand with discernment, not instead of it. We did not want to write this but we have learned that the things we least want to say are often the ones most necessary to say out loud. If this spares even one person of the damages we’ve felt, it will have been worth saying.

In 2019, we tasted a coffee from Pigtauranan, Bukidnon that we couldn’t quite explain. It was fruity and a floral and no...
11/06/2026

In 2019, we tasted a coffee from Pigtauranan, Bukidnon that we couldn’t quite explain. It was fruity and a floral and not yet what anyone would call specialty. Looking back, we were pretty well-matched.

We filed that cup somewhere in the back of our minds where we keep things we haven’t figured out how to love properly yet but know we will eventually.

By 2025, we got a batch of Pigtauranan Sitio San Roque Naturals from Kalsada. The one we got was still not specialty grade at that point, as the specialty grade batch was already sold. We sorted ours hand — defect by defect, one by one — and launched it at anyway because we believed in what it was becoming. The reactions? People were surprised. Some were skeptical when we told them the grade. Then they tried it and the skepticism went somewhere else entirely.

That’s the thing about having faith in something before it’s ready. It makes the arrival feel like a shared win.

This year, it launches as specialty as it always had the potential to be: grown in Bukidnon by 114 farmer-families who built a mill together from scratch with Kalsada and sourced with the same patience Kalsada showed when Blue Bottle rejected their samples for 4 straight years before finally saying yes in 2023.

We want you to know all of this: the hand-sorting, the 2019 hunch, and the years of waiting because transparency is the only way community actually works.

Grab a bag through http://kubo.coffee of the one that finally made it. We’re so glad you’re here for this. 🛖

📷

“Trust the process,” they say. Well, it’s been a crazy full schedule for us for April and May. 😅Amidst global and local ...
23/05/2026

“Trust the process,” they say. Well, it’s been a crazy full schedule for us for April and May. 😅

Amidst global and local dreadful news, we still put in the effort to find reasons to push forward. We’re grateful to everyone who participated in our cupping sessions. We’re grateful to for sharing his personal stash to the public so others could access rare coffees and learn from it, too.

We also share in milestones and joys when partners celebrate their wins: ’s 5th anniversary held at the roastery, for one. It was a full day of laughter, drinks, munchies, and creatives all around. As for .coffee’s pop-ups, we’re thankful to have shared the bar with them during ’s launch and .mnl’s brunch. Both events affirmed how coffee truly brings all kinds of people together.

After years of waiting, we’re glad to announce that our now has a sibling: a 3KG so that we can fulfill bigger demands as a roastery. We’re grateful to and who helped us bring our second child home.

Finally, we also conducted a Sensory Workshop and Cupping Session with our friends-turned-family at .mnl who warmly shared their space to our caffeinated community.

In these days of uncertainty, we’re hopeful that what brought us together in the first place is something we can still hold on to. Let’s keep working together towards a more inclusive and accessible industry. Let’s keep the balance of science, service, and stories for an experience that was, at least for us, always meant to be shared. Dayón kamong tanan! 🛖

There has been a quiet tension moving life lately.You see it in inventory sheets, in group chats between MSME owners, in...
22/05/2026

There has been a quiet tension moving life lately.

You see it in inventory sheets, in group chats between MSME owners, in customers hesitating slightly longer before ordering another drink, in baristas recalculating whether electricity, milk, cups, salaries, and coffee can still coexist sustainably next month.

Over the past year, coffee prices globally have risen sharply as climate disruptions affected major producing countries while geopolitical conflict continued to reshape fuel and shipping costs. In the Philippines, these pressures feel especially close to home because they coincide with rising electricity rates, repeated fuel price hikes, and broader anxieties about political and economic instability (Philippine News Agency, 2025).

Meralco (2025) announced multiple electricity price increases, citing higher generation and transmission costs, linked to global oil prices and peso depreciation. Fuel prices likewise continued to climb over several months, directly affecting transportation and logistics.

Global uncertainty eventually becomes personal: a café delays equipment repairs, a customer cuts back on visits, a roastery recalculates every shipment, and everyone quietly tries to protect what they can. For MSMEs like many cafés and roasteries, there is very little distance between sustainability and exhaustion. Most small businesses simply do not have the buffers larger corporations can access.

This is why transparency matters to us.

Coffee has never been only about flavor. It carries labor, electricity, fuel, freight, climate risk, and the emotional reality of people trying to continue despite uncertainty.

For now, we’ve chosen to hold our current prices to reduce shipping costs where possible and increase green coffee ordering volumes to lessen delivery expenses over time. To help sustain this responsibly, we’ll also shift toward a Pay-As-You-Order agreement with our partners.

No perfect solutions exist for moments like this, but we can still make careful choices. Hopefully, it’s enough care to carry one another through them. 🛖

📷: .abcd

Traditional cupping is structured and almost ceremonial. It asks you to slow down, score, and be precise. Thunderdome cu...
20/04/2026

Traditional cupping is structured and almost ceremonial. It asks you to slow down, score, and be precise. Thunderdome cupping, started by , keeps that foundation but removes the pressure to be perfect.

At its core, it’s still sensory evaluation: coffees tasted side by side, often blind, where the goal is to compare, identify, and then decide. The format borrows from triangulation and comparative tasting methods used in sensory science, where detecting differences between samples sharpens perception (Stone & Sidel, 2004; Lawless & Heymann, 2010). Thunderdome just speeds things up.

That shift matters.

When we compare coffees directly, differences become clearer. Acidity stands out. Processing becomes more legible. Flavor stops being abstract and starts becoming something you can point to. Research shows that contrast enhances perception, which is why side-by-side tasting is one of the fastest ways to train the palate (Lawless & Heymann, 2010).

But more importantly, it’s more human.

People talk. They can disagree. They can laugh and change their minds. It becomes less about getting the right answer and more about learning how to notice. For beginners, this removes
intimidation. For professionals, it sharpens calibration. It exposes gaps and keeps you honest.

When designed intentionally, as we did last week, what looks like chaos becomes a tool for learning.

Cupping was never meant to be exclusive. It was meant to be shared, and sometimes, the fastest way to understand coffee is to stop trying to be right and start trying to notice.

Join us for our Wednesday Habit cupping sessions this month as we continue to taste rare coffees from and featuring international roasters. Registration announcements are posted in our Broadcast Channel on IG, MgaKapitbahay. Takits sa Miyerkules! 🛖

Address

727 Lunas Street
Mandaluyong
1550

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+639173781466

Website

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