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The inevitable consequences of combining my previous articles Taal and Atlantis and Coffee Tree as the Tree of Wisdom would be varied of course.
Foremost among those is my marketing pitch that the original species of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil herein referred to as the coffee may have been primarily cultivated in the most paradisiacal of all places of all times which in turn is herein referred to as the Taal Island or Taal Volcano or the immediate area surrounding it.
That would put the well-known type of coffee cultivated in Batangas and places nearby as the true coffee of wisdom. And it’s the Kapeng Barako. However, whether it is the best tasting coffee ever or the most delicious kind worldwide would perhaps be based on one’s preferences. There will always be fans of robusta, arabica, their own variations and other types of course and we leave them at that.
However, there is a problem in suggesting that Kapeng Barako or the coffee belonging to the species called “coffea liberica” as the most original of all coffee. Even more so as the coffee of wisdom!
The difficulty lies in written notes and histories regarding the propagation of said species.
The Kapeng Barako is said to have been introduced by Spanish friars in the Philippines around the mid 1700s and cultivated in areas around Lipa, Batangas where it thrived and survived better than in any other places in the archipelago. The original seeds or beans were known to be native in Western and Central Africa.
Of course, as a champion of my own instincts and biases for motifs I subscribed to, I kind of doubt these highly Eurocentric tales of which many were already proven erroneous. But for now, let’s just put things as they are. I.E. “Barako is officially a European explorers introduction from one place to another”.
Barako was the main coffee type propagated in the islands during the Spanish colonial period. It even supported world consumption for a brief time during a widespread coffee disease which affected supplies worldwide.
From the Philippines it spread to neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia where they also flourished in the similar weather and climatic conditions as in the highlands of Tagaytay, Batangas and Cavite.
Currently c. liberica is a minority coffee type compared to other more widespread and popular coffee varieties. Only two percent of coffee production worldwide is from it. Reason perhaps is that it is harder to grow than the others. Though when it grows its height is around twice the other types.
But still Southern Tagalogs especially Batanguenos are very proud of their coffee. You may find Kapeng Barako sold in this Manila coffeeshop.
