“Yardstick actually walks the walk. It is proving that you can make money, but at the same time not being terrible to your employees, suppliers, and community.”
If there is a Michelin-starred coffee shop, it is Yardstick.
More than two months ago, my students, Kenneth, Bea, and Ely, introduced me to Yardstick Coffee in Makati. I’ve heard enough “Yardssshhtickkk parehhh” to last me several lifetimes. Alas! I took the bait. I am the type who orders the same thing at the same restaurants for years. So, trying a new coffee shop felt like a major life decision. But here I am, basically living at their Esteban branch, grading papers as I inhale cappuccino fumes like oxygen.
It turns out, I picked a good time to develop this habit. Yardstick earlier this year ranked 18th in the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops. The name “Yardstick,” which was literally named after the thing that measures everything else, reflected their bold ambition to set a benchmark for the coffee industry in the Philippines. That’s right, a Filipino coffee company beat thousands of pretentious European cafés and hipster Brooklyn roasteries. Not bad for a country where instant coffee used to be considered fancy.
The kids on TikTok are losing their minds over this place. Just a few days before I wrote this article, I saw a video showing, “Ghaggi! U’ve never tried Yardshtick? Well, zahbagay, ifykyk lang parang shang shecret spoht in Makati.” I had to Google what half of that conyo meant. Gen Z has turned ordering coffee here into some kind of social media performance sensation.
Here is what makes Yardstick different from our typical coffee shop success story. When Andre Chanco and his friends Jessica Lee and Kevin Tang started this company in 2013, they did not just want to sell expensive coffee to people who use “notes of stone fruit” in regular conversation. They wanted to build something that would change how Philippine businesses think about, well, everything.
Let us talk about their employees. Most coffee shops treat baristas like they are temporary placeholders until “real” careers come along. Not Yardstick. They have this thing called C.A.F.E. values (Customer-centric, Always on fire, Focused, and Einstein approach to problem-solving). Your barista today could be your HR manager tomorrow. They have created career paths where making lattes can lead to running sales departments.
They also run something called Y.A.R.D., which is basically coffee university. They teach anyone who wants to learn about brewing, roasting, and why your coffee tastes like disappointment when you make it at home. They are making the entire Philippine coffee scene better by sharing their knowledge. It is like if Jollibee taught everyone how to make the best-tasting Chickenjoy.
About those coffee beans, people got mad at Yardstick for initially importing coffee. In a country that grows coffee! The audacity! But Chanco had a point. He wanted to show Filipinos what Colombian and Ethiopian coffee tasted like, not because foreign is better, but because choice is good. These days, they pay local farmers premium prices, sometimes more than the coffee technically deserves. Why? Because paying farmers well today means better coffee tomorrow. It is like investing in your future happiness, one bean at a time.
Their slogan, “Coffee is our love language,” sounds cheesy until you see it in action. Each of their branches looks completely different, but they all follow three rules: express what they do, help customers escape reality, and be better than the last shop they built. No cookie-cutter stores here. They want you to stay, work, chat, maybe have an existential crisis over your fourth espresso. Whatever works for you.
I teach Sustainability Management and Corporate Social Responsibility. So, I have seen every company claim they are saving the world while mostly saving their profit margins. But Yardstick actually walks the walk. It is proving that you can make money, but at the same time not being terrible to your employees, suppliers, and community.
What is the lesson here? Maybe Philippine businesses do not need to copy Silicon Valley or Singapore to succeed. We can build something uniquely ours that happens to be world-class. Treating people well, supporting local farmers, and creating community spaces is not just nice. It is smart business. Or, maybe, I am overthinking this because I have had too much coffee today. Who knows? Maybe “Coffee is our love language” is not just marketing. Maybe it is a business philosophy that actually works.
The author can be found most afternoons at Yardstick Coffee’s Esteban branch in Makati, allegedly working but mostly people-watching and admiring baristas who treat coffee-making like art. After all, coffee is their love language. He can be reached at adrian.mabalay@dlsu.edu.ph.
The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.
