Ang Dabawenyo

I was at a new café that’s recently opened shop in Davao, Kangaroo Coffee Company. It’s on Tionko, just after Bangko Sentral. I’ve been there twice already: the first time with blogger friends, the night before our flight to Manila last week, and this time with Bob Martin (Mindanao.com, Live in the Philippines, among others). Unfortunately, at neither time was I able to try their food. Read more »

For long enough, I have avoided writing about my experiences with the customer service of Bo’s Coffee Club — the one on F. Torres St. You see, I usually shy away from writing negatively about something that has the potential to change. But when I see it all the time…

Today I was at Bo’s — not by choice, though — to get my caffeine fix via my favorite brew, Americano. Café Americano is a blend of espresso and hot water, which is steamed into the dark coffee. If it’s the other way around — coffee poured into hot water — that is known as Australia’s Long Black Coffee. Read more »

I’m blogging live from Kasagingán Kapehan, on Torres St., Davao City. We are here for the 2nd day of the Davao Food Appreciation Tour. I’m with Aileen, Jay (the “sweetie”), Andrew, Ria, MiGs™, Angel, Mikko, Gerwin. Read more »

Coffee Beans

“A coffee bean is the seed of the coffee plant (the pit inside the red or purple fruit). The fruits, coffee cherries or coffee berries, most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together. Coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm that contains 0.8 - 2.5 % caffeine, which is one of the main reasons the plants are cultivated.”

Hops

“One of the four principal ingredients of beer, hops are flower cones added to beer as a bittering agent, a preservative, and an aromatic.”

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Good news to coffee lovers who frequently find themselves in the area of Claveria: another café has opened in Davao City, near Aldevinco. It’s called Coffee SPOT, and it’s located in the newly-built EC Business Center on C.M. Recto St., just before Imperial Hotel and The Marco Polo.
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The original franchise of Bo’s Coffee Club in Davao is at SM City. It’s on the ground floor of the mall, right in the middle of the walkway and near the atrium. This makes for a good vantage point for people-watching.

There are now two Bo’s Coffee Club outlets in Davao, but what I appreciate with the first one is their consistency. From the time they opened a few years ago and up to now, their coffee has always tasted the same. They brew their coffee rather strong (even their Americano), but I love the flavor. It’s rich and envigorating — just don’t take it in the afternoon if you’re the type whose sleep is affected by caffeine!

It can get pretty noisy there, especially when the mall is bustling with shoppers, so Bo’s at SM isn’t a very ideal place for relaxing. But if you don’t mind the racket, and because you’re out to grab that perfect mug of cappuccino or latté, spending an hour or so at Bo’s can be rather rewarding gastronomically. Ask for their durian pie! Read more »

(For the life of me… my favorite coffee shop and I haven’t even blogged about it yet this whole time! Oh I’ve mentioned it here and there, but I realized just now that I hadn’t given Basti’s Brew its own post here. Shame on me!)

Basti’s Brew Coffee Station has a role in the history of wifi in Davao. It was the first coffee shop that offered wireless Internet connection in the city via Globe Innove — this was back in 2004, if I remember right. For a year the Internet connectivity was offered for free, and so it was Basti’s that “educated” the Dabawenyo to mix coffee and laptops. Then Globe started charging for Internet access (P100/hour!!), and people started going to a new coffee shop that was already offering free wifi. Eventually, Basti’s got its own provider and started broadcasting its wifi signal for free. By then, nearly all coffee shops had installed their own wifi routers to entice Dabawenyos into their establishments. Today, it’s de rigeur in Davao City for coffee shops (and even other kinds of establishments) to have free wifi. Read more »

Last night, Ian (my Pilates guru friend) and I were looking for a place to hang out at — a relaxing place that was still open at 2:30 AM. Almost all coffee shops, clubs, restaurants in Davao close at 2 AM, you see. Good thing Ian thought of Karl’s Koffee Korner, the one in Buhangin. I hadn’t been back there in ages (although years ago it was a favorite getaway among my IT-industry friends). Read more »

I’d been hearing about it, and finally I’ve seen the place: Coffee @ Yellow Hauz. It’s in an as yet secluded part of downtown Davao (the coffee shop is on Mapa St., near TumbleTots on Mabini St.), away from the hustle & bustle of places like F. Torres street. In fact, the area looks decidedly residential — a throw-back to the city’s antiquated zoning.

Yellow Hauz is certainly a looker. From your first glimpse of it from the outside up to your relaxing stint within, you’d be impressed. The architecture, the interior design, the nice little touches — and the huge glass panels on the walls and doors (something I like in a building) — all add up to one delightful package. Read more »

Even before this latest addition to Davao’s coffee culture opened, I’d already heard about Spro Coffee Shop via its very own blog. The owners had been blogging about this café from the time they started conceptualizing it, and the blog was featured for a time at the Davao Blogspace. Read more »