Are you a coffee lover who wants to try brewing your own coffee or learn more about basics of latte art? Enroll now at Institute for Coffee Excellence in Sheridan Street Corner Pine Street, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila to start your barista training!
Coffee business in the Philippines is doing better than ever with its countless Filipino consumers, regardless of its social class. From my own observation, based on my circle of connections, this country has a higher percentage of coffee drinkers than tea drinkers. Do you agree?
So we decided to visit the Institute for Coffee Excellence, a global coffee school located in Mandaluyong City for home brewing workshop. Well, I am huge a coffee and lover drinker but it never occurred to me on how coffee was made and where it came from. I guess it was time for me to learn about how to use a coffee machine.
Michael Harris Lim, is the founder and the 2019 Philippine National Barista Champion. He’s also the first Filipino to make it to the semi-finals of the World Barista Championship in Boston, USA. He opens this Institute for Coffee Excellence, an educational institution that offers world-class training standards for the specialty coffee industry. After successfully sharing his advocacies in the international stage, Harris continues to carry out his life’s work of creating a fully-sustainable coffee economy and takes another step towards realizing this vision-by officially opening this Institute.
The Institute for Coffee Excellence is a school that offers world-class training standards for the specialty coffee industry. With the aim to elevate the quality of every coffee experience in the Philippines, it focuses on empowering the individuals that play an integral part in the country’s coffee chain: the farmers, roasters and baristas. It also strives to create an immersive education approach that provides an opportunity for everyone to learn about coffee and excel as professionals for sustainability.
The Institute for Coffee Excellence offers different programs such as Coffee Flavorist, Techno Roasting, Techno Brewing, Techno Barista, Latte Art Class, Home-Barista, Espresso Masterclass – Decent Machine Edition and Home Brewing. They also have a barista lab, a roasting lab, and a cafe.
Barista Argie is an instructor a the Institute for Coffee Excellence and he was kind enough of to share with his on how he shared his coffee and what made him decided to become a Barista.
Argie showed us three coffee machines which he says made a significant impact among Baristas and the coffee world. The first coffee machine he introduced to us was the V60 machine created by the Japanese. It’s the most commonly used coffee machine used by Baristas around the world. The next one is the Chemex. It apparently gives a clean cup of coffee. Lastly, the Aeropress, a simple coffee machine that is used anywhere at any time. It was invented in 2005 by Aerobie President, Alan Adler who loved coffee so much that he wanted to make his own machine.
After the coffee class, we had to make our own coffee. We were separated into three teams where we had to put coffee into the machine. We then grinded our coffee beans and finally stirred the coffee.
And tadaa! We finally made our own Vietnamese coffee. It was not bad according to Barista Argie especially for a first timer like me.
In the end, we all passed our coffee class and got our coffee certificate. After the class, I have huge respect for the baristas and coffee industry. I have no idea that making good coffee was a complicated process. I am now ready to make own good cup of joe with the knowledge that was shared to me by the Institute for Coffee Excellence since coffee is life!
To know more about the Institute for Coffee Excellence, visit coffeeexcellence.org
