Philippines Sitio San Roque Robusta Anaerobic Natural

Coffee Profile

Continent: Asia

Country: Philippines

Farm: Kalsada Sitio San Roque mill/ Pigtauranan smallholders

Process: Anaerobic Natural

Region: Bukidnon, Mindanao

Variety: Coffea canephora (Robusta)

Roast Scale

Light Medium Dark

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Tasting Notes 

Fragrant and flavorful undertones of dried berries, roasted almonds, and vanilla with a velvety, milk chocolate body.  Makes an excellent low-toned espresso or even a wonderful filter coffee.

Sitio San Roque

In the Philippines 90% of the country's production is Robusta, and most of it is locally consumed. Nearly all of this coffees is locally consumed and goes to the instant coffee market. Specialty Arabica is hard to come buy here, let alone robusta

Luckily our friends at Kalsada in the Philippines have been working alongside growers to refine their coffees and bring them to the world stage. Our founder and green buyer Miguel first met the team from the then nascant Kalsada Coffee in Manila in 2013.

Shortly there after, due to a successful Kickstarter campaign, the social entrepreneurs at Kalsada Coffee were were able to raise $15,000 to set up a small wet-mill at Sitio Belis in Benguet, on the Philippines northern most island -Luzon. There a group of 50 families bring their coffee cherry for centralized processing.

Kalsada has since set up mills in other communities around Benguet, along with a new one called Sitio San Roque in Pigtauranan, Bukidon on the Philippines southern most island of Mindanao. where they process both Arabica and Robusta

This area is very high altitude for robusta 1200m+. As with Arabica the cooler temps higher up the mountain seem to benefit the quality of the coffee. Paired with Anaerobic natural processing this coffee is an excellent example of this often over-looked species.

Specialty Robusta

Make espresso at home? We’re thrilled to share this amazing robusta from the Philippines - with you, our espresso enthusiasts. Our staff has fallen in love with it, and we’re sure you will too! 

Up until recently robusta coffees have had a bad reputation with specialty buyers, who view them as a cheap, commodity grade bean good for little more than instant coffee. And we know why: strip-picking and careless processing is encouraged to keep costs low for the primary buyers, the instant coffee and discount coffee brands. Unsurprisingly, robusta coffee farmers typically earn half or less that of arabica growers.

Paradise Coffee Roasters has been a champion of robusta coffee producers since 2004. And to that effect, Paradise founder Miguel has been supporting and collaborating with robusta growers in India, Ecuador, Thailand, and now the Philippines. We believe that if the industry is serious about sustainability and truly cares about coffee producers, we cannot afford to ignore nearly half of the coffee farmers in the world. To us, specialty coffee is not a species, variety, or location. It is a process.

Tips for brewing with Robusta

Robusta is less dense than arabica coffees and behaves a lot differently in brewing. We have some tips from Barista and Brewers cup champion friends in Ecuador for how techniques to get the best out of single origin robustas.

Pour Over by Johann Buenano 2019 Ecuador Brewers Cup Champion

• Use 15g of ground coffee to 200mL hot water (201-203F)
• Pre-wet the grinds with 30ml water.
• After 30 seconds pour the remaining 170g of water all at once.
• Target brew time of 1:30-1:45

Espresso Recipe from 2016 Ecuador Barista Champion Mario Idrovo

• Use 20g+ (if your basket will allow) with 194-196F Water.
• 1:2 Brewing ratio. 20g coffee =40g brewed espresso
• 23 second extraction time.

Robusta produces a lot of crema so the volume can be very deceptive. It will look like it is pouring too fast, but the crema will settle out after brewing.