Frim Silos to Shared Tables
How the Mindanao Coffee Scene Is Recalibrating Through Community-Led Brewdowns
For years, coffee in Mindanao lived in silos. Skills were learned in isolation. Communities grew inward. Events were rare, and collaboration, when it happened, often came with tension. In some local ecosystems, collaboration offers are sometimes not partnerships, but control probes. A way to test influence, a way to keep score.
That context matters. Because what’s happening now didn’t come from nowhere. It came from years of learning alone, and the slow decision to finally learn together.
Held in this local coffee shop in Malaybalay—Malaybalay City Coffee, or mc² in its 8700 Skyloft—that shift becomes visible. Not as a headline moment, but as a lived one. A room where different coffee communities chose to gather, not to compete for space, but to share it.
The air is gentle but alive, as if the walls themselves know that today is different. We didn’t come to judge or try to belong—we came to read the room and witness a moment where the space itself is holding something bigger: communities converging not out of habit, but with purpose.
On January 18, 2026, mc² opened its doors to the Bukidnon Coffee Tribe’s 6th Monthly Brewdown—and, for the first time, to the Mindanao Regional Brewdown. What began as a friendly contest drew in brewers and coffee enthusiasts. The gathering brought together coffee communities from across Mindanao, including Bukidnon Coffee Tribe—the event’s organizing community—alongside Cagayan de Oro Specialty Coffee Collective, Panabo Coffee Community, Gensan Coffee Association, and North Brew Circle. Each one arrived not just with beans and gear, but with a story, a little hope, and an openness to see what happens when lines between competition and camaraderie blur.
Between rounds, conversations unfolded quietly, short exchanges at tables, notes compared, and techniques discussed. There was a first-timer in the room. There was also someone who decided to join less than 24 hours before the event. No hype, no spotlight… just the choice to show up and take part.
There’s no rush here. Instead, you notice small gestures like bags of beans exchanged without ceremony, hands meeting in greeting, the way laughter settles the room. Bukidnon’s coffee scene isn’t powered by hype, but fueled by slow trust, built patiently on showing up and sharing skills in plain sight. Titles and egos are checked at the door. The boldest thing anyone can do here is admit they’re still learning, and invite someone else to learn alongside them.
And then, a sound only this room could love: slurping. Some were bold, some were tentative but all intentional. To those unfamiliar, it might seem strange. But here, it’s a shared language—a way to taste more deeply, to listen closely, to understand what’s in the cup beyond words.
In the championship round, three brewers— Rex Aloysius Tuquib Emperio, Marlow Abella, and Luke Nathan Ranan—stood together, using the Sibarist filter. The moment was quiet but electric. When the results were announced, it was Luke Nathan Ranan from CDO who took the top spot, with Marlow and Rex close behind. Yet the applause that followed belonged to everyone. A room celebrating not just a winner, but the willingness to show up, share knowledge, and care about the craft.
If you’ve spent time in enough local scenes, you know collaboration can sometimes be just a softer word for control. A way to test boundaries. To keep score. But not here. Not in this room. What unfolded at was something difference. Communities making space, not taking it. Collaboration is viewed as respect, not as a strategy.
Between rounds, stories continued to travel from table to table. Advice was exchanged. Laughter echoed across the café.
Among the brewers and conversations that filled the room, one presence quietly reframed the moment. Julia Chen—CEO of eight coffee shops in Taiwan, co-founder of A-Li Taiwan Coffee Farm, a CQI Q-Grader (Arabica), and an international barista and roasting competition judge—was not there to observe from a distance. Her presence underscored a shift that no longer needs announcement: Mindanao’s coffee scene is no longer on the sidelines. When global standards meet local openness, quality stops being aspirational. It starts becoming inevitable.
Bukidnon Coffee Tribe sees this not as a standalone moment, but as part of a longer arc. More community-led gatherings are lined up this year—including The Lakeside Coffee Festival 2026, Madagaya Festival by DTI 2026, coffee quality competitions, and the Regional Brewers Cup. The work continues, and there’s room for more voices at the table.
Spaces like mc² play a vital role—not by owning the moment, but by giving it room to happen. On an ordinary day, it’s a coffee shop. On days like this, it becomes something more… a meeting ground, a pause, a room where different communities are allowed to exist side by side, without needing to perform or compete for attention.
As the day wound down and the room finally quieted, the documenting continued. Not out of obligation, but out of care. Because spaces like this don’t just serve coffee. They collect stories. And there was always one more detail worth capturing, one more conversation worth remembering.
This is the Mindanao coffee scene, as it stands now. Recalibrating. Learning. Choosing to move forward together. Progress doesn’t always come from speed—but from shared direction, cup by cup, story by story.
