Born out of a legacy for the love of barako, Café de Lipa’s business model is to genuinely do good, building a better community and at the same time have fun.
Café de Lipa is the home of Filipino coffee providing the magical brew called Barako. Featuring coffee beans from all over the Philippines – robusta from Batangas, Cavite, Ilocos, Basilan; excelsa from Batangas, Quezon, Basilan and Mindoro; and arabica from Benguet, Bukidnon and Cotabato.
It takes pride in providing the best cup of coffee every time, each time through continuous learning, making a better cup each day.
Each cup of coffee served and each coffee pack offered are a distillation of everything Café de Lipa knows about coffee.
Philippine coffee traces it roots to Batangas province, Lipa City in particular. In common vernacular, coffee has been synonymous to Batangas.
In the 1800’s, the first coffee seedling of Liberica were planted in Pinagtung-ulan, Lipa City by Dominican priests together with two assistants, Macasaets, who arrived from Spain with a mission to evangelize the Filipinos.
Liberica flourished in Lipa, in contrast to the cacao seedlings that were also planted in the area. Many people account this to the volcanic soil, relatively low temperature and cultivation practices in the area.
The volume of Liberica trees in the area increased rapidly becoming a major source of income for Lipeños. The extraordinary wealth of the people of Lipa during the 1880s was astounding especially for six months between 1886 to 1888 where a frost hit Latin America making the Lipa the world’s biggest supplier of coffee beans.
In October 21, 1887, Queen Regent Maria Cristina of Spain, acting for the young King Alfonso XIII, elevated Lipa to a city honoring its importance by giving its own coat of arms.
Liberica, better known by its moniker Kapeng Barako, became a popular beverage. The coffee cups with a remarkable aroma, pleasant acidity and heavy body.
The Macasaets continued on growing Liberica and making this magical brew. Continuously perfecting their craft with years of experience passed on from generation to generation. Coffee became a way of life for them, living and breathing coffee. They gave their own heart and soul to this bean and in the process making this coffee something that is distinctively Filipino.
This passion for great coffee continues on with Jose H. Mercado and his family, direct descendants of the Macasaet clan. Barako Joe, as his friends and colleagues call him, started on the humblest of beginnings as he jokingly recalls “I was born in a coffee sack under a coffee tree.”
Café de Lipa is the culmination of the dream of Jose Mercado’s father, Macario Mercado who wanted to be able to serve barako from bean to cup. A seemingly distant dream then as Macario started his love affair with barako as a tenant farmer.
Fueled by the love for barako and armed with a commitment to quality and service, the first Café de Lipa opened its doors on Oct. 26, 2006.
