Kalinga lady makes good brewing coffee

By Francis B. Degay

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Brewing coffee has brought a better life to a woman here who now markets her product as far as Manila.

“It was my desire to maintain and maximize the income of the coffee industry in Kalinga,” said Grace Agtina, manufacturer of Kalinga Blend and manager of Golden Berries hotel here. “Why should we sell our raw coffee berries to private companies and buy them back packed with exorbitant prices?”

Agtina was a coffee trader way back in 2006 while maintaining a farm supply store at Narangay Cabaruan, a few kilometers from Barangay Dagupan.

After the training she attended in Manila, Agtina started Kalinga Blend by roasting and grinding three varieties of coffee together namely Excelsa, Robusta and Arabica.
These are packed in 200 and 400 grams.

Launched sometime in December of 2007, Kalinga Blend was adjudged the best One Town One Product (OTOP) in last year’s coffee congress conducted at Supreme Hotel, Baguio City.

According to Agtina, the coffee are organically grown in the fertile mountains of Kalinga province.

She said she has outlets in Shoemart, Rustan’s and Shopwise in Manila, 1 in Lucena City and some provinces in the cordillera.

With good businessm Agtina constructed the 17-room Golden Berries Hotel, fully air-conditioned, with a wide swimming pool, function rooms, restaurant and coffee shop, souvenir store and wide area for parking.

One of the rooms beside the swimming is now beikng used to grind, pack and seal Kalinga Blend.

The hotel was accredited as tourist inn by the Department of Tourism last year, a class lower than a one-star hotel.