Who We Are
We are a family of budding coffee producers cultivating shade-grown Benguet arabica coffee in Balili, Mankayan, Benguet in the Cordilleras mountain range of the Philippines. Our farm started in January 2018 with a simple question: “What if we could grow coffee using our great-grandmother’s land?”
Intrigued by this possibility, we took a closer look at our ancestral land in Benguet, and discovered that its forest-like environment had just the right amount of shade for growing coffee. In fact, our great great-grandmother Agnep was Bontoc native and a backyard coffee grower who kept typica plants underneath a thick canopy of Benguet Pine, Kalasan and Alnos trees. Several years ago, Purita Hora-Dado, our grandmother and Sean Luke Dado, our uncle planted Typica, Granica, and Red bourbon coffee plants, which ended up yielding cherries despite being left on their own. This was all the encouragement we needed to begin our coffee journey.
READ: Our coffee wins Bronze in the Signature Coffee Award: Brewing at the Global Coffee Championships
Five months later, we finished planting 1,200 red bourbon coffee plants, and we are learning everything we can about coffee farming and processing. Our dream is to offer Philippine specialty coffee to the world, while providing sustainable benefits to local farmers and nurturing the next generation of coffee growers in the Benguet region.
As of today, October 10, 2022, we have planted 7,320 coffee plants and recently sowed 2,000 seedlings.
(Written by Lauren and Marielle Dado)
Our Mission
To be among Benguet’s leading producers of specialty coffee that grows sustainable, high-quality Arabica. We aim to be cost-competitive and aligned with global quality standards, while following environment-friendly growing processes. Through our farm, we want to provide sustainable benefits to farmers, processors, traders, exporters and consumers.
Core Values
- Environmental responsibility. We value the environment where we grow our coffee. We will only use sustainable agricultural practices that preserve our forest system and maintain the productivity of the land over time.
- Commitment to the community. We are committed to giving fair compensation for the work of our coffee farmers. We aim to educate and empower the next generation of coffee farmers in Benguet, so they can grow along with us and develop sustainable livelihoods of their own.
- Continuous improvement. We strive to maintain high standards in everything we do, while improving our methods with practice. Through our culture of constant education, research, and growth, we aim to constantly refine our methods as we strive to make our Benguet arabica meet global standards.
Meet our lead farmers
And at least 27 farmers and helpers since 2018.
The Dado Family
October 20, 2022
We are grateful to Joey and Tess Dado, who paved the way to get our coffee seedlings from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Regional Field Office of the Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-RFO CAR) through Joan Dimas-Bacbac.