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Gina Dizon
Exotic Pidlisan coffee gains aroma

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- That famous Pidlisan Coffee Arabica which has been heard of years for its distinct aromatic smell has now gained ground with the coffee being roasted and packaged by the coffee farmers themselves.

Coffee farmer Nelly Kinaud, 59, pulps, hulls, dries, roasts, grinds, and packs coffee in Aguid, Sagada. She said she makes sure that coffee Arabica from her hometown in Aguid be prepared and packaged by coffee farmers here to preserve its quality as Pidlisan coffee.

Pidlisan coffee is popularized as Sagada Coffee by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when she visited Sagada in December 2005. Nelly Kinaud is chairman of the Golden Fields Organization formed in 2004 composed of 35 coffee farmers. The organizational members themselves harvest coffee from their own plants.

The members pool the harvest with them alternating in hulling, drying, roasting, grinding and packaging the final coffee powder. They produce at least 80 gantas of coffee green beans in one year. One ganta composes two and a half kilograms of coffee beans. One kilogram of coffee beans brings at least 450 grams of coffee powder.

Packing the final coffee powder is no easy task. It takes at least five days of laborious work from hulling the first skin off from the coffee berries.

A ganta of coffee berries for example takes at least 30 minutes to remove the first skin via a fabricated pulper and left fermented for at least a day. The skinned- off berries are now washed and dried for at least three days. A huller will then take off the second brown skin parchments leaving green coffee beans. Roasting will follow for at least at hour. The green coffee beans turn into dark brown beans ready for grinding.

“We need a machine operated grinder”, Nelly Kinaud said. “Currently, we are using two manual operated grinders which makes a back-breaking and exhausting work. An electric operated grinder will help do less strenuous work”.

The final dark brown coffee powder is now packed as Sagada Arabica Coffee. Packaging is possible with P25, 000 fund support of the office of Provincial Governor Maximo Dalog and some counterpart from the organization.

The organization markets its final coffee powder to Sagada Poblacion at P300 a kilo. The bulk of their produce is sold in Bontoc and to a few individuals in Baguio and Manila.

“The most that we want is to preserve the quality of Pidlisan Kape”, Nelly Kinaud said. “We like coffee Arabica not to be sold in their parchment or green beans state. We fear that this be mixed with other varieties thus destroying the distinct aroma of Coffee Arabica”, she added.

In the same manner, coffee farmers belonging to the Pide Aguid Fidelisan Multipurpose Cooperative (PAFMPC) which was formed earlier also roast and package their own harvest called Sagada Gold. Same is true with the Aguid-based Catholic Women’s League who is also into roasting and packaging their own coffee powder. Barlig coffee farmers belonging to the Barlig Development Cooperative also roast, grind and pack their own coffee produce in bottles.

The demand is high for coffee which prompted Golden Fields members to plant more coffee trees. “Starbucks and Figaro has already indicated their interest to buy coffee from us but we cannot meet the demand”, Ms Kinaud said.

The organization members recently planted a two hectare farm with coffee seedlings. Members set up their own nurseries where they source coffee seedlings.