Lolo Mitko - Coffee with a Filipino Soul

01/07/2026

☕ Coffee Talk with Lolo Mitko

A Filipino friend who visited me recently shared an interesting observation.
He said that today's coffee culture is often less about the coffee... and more about where you drink it.
People look for a beautiful café, a nice corner, a great selfie, a TikTok video, or an Instagram story. Sometimes the coffee itself almost becomes a prop.

Then I started paying attention.

In many cafés, almost everyone is looking at a phone.
Sometimes, even people sitting at the same table spend more time scrolling than talking to each other. I've even seen friends sending messages to someone sitting right across from them instead of simply saying it out loud.

There is nothing wrong with technology - we all use it.

But it made me wonder...

When did coffee become something we photograph more than something we experience?
For me, coffee has always been an excuse to slow down.

To talk.
To listen.
To laugh.
To share stories.

And yes... to enjoy what's actually in the cup.

That's one of the reasons I love roasting coffee.

Every bag tells a story - about the farmer, the region, the processing method, the roast profile, and the journey from a coffee tree to your cup.

A beautiful café is wonderful.
A great cup of coffee is even better.
But the best coffee.....is the one shared with someone who puts their phone down for a while. ☕😊

What do you think?

☕ Mitko, Lolo Mitko

30/06/2026

☕ Coffee Talk with Lolo Mitko

The journey of great coffee doesn't start in the roaster... it starts on the tree.

The other day I watched a coffee harvest where workers were cutting entire fruiting branches instead of hand-picking individual cherries.

If you look closely at the branches on the picture, you'll notice something interesting - green, yellow and fully ripe red cherries are all harvested together.

At first, it looked surprising.

Then I reminded myself that not all coffee is grown for the same purpose.

When coffee is produced in very large volumes, harvesting everything at once can make perfect economic sense. It's faster, requires less labor, and helps keep costs down.

Specialty coffee is a different story.

I'm fortunate to work with wonderful coffee - growing friends in Sagada and Bukidnon, where harvesting is done with incredible care. They selectively hand - pick only the ripe cherries, often returning to the same trees several times as the fruit continues to ripen.

It's slower.
It's harder.
It's more expensive.

But that's where exceptional coffee begins.

Different ripeness means different sugar content, different density, different moisture... and ultimately a less predictable roast.

Can a skilled roaster improve the coffee?

Absolutely.

Can even the best roaster transform unripe cherries into sweet, complex coffee?

Unfortunately, no.

That's why I always say that roasting doesn't begin when I switch on the roaster.

It begins weeks earlier, in the coffee field, in the hands of the farmer.

To my friends and coffee farmers - thank you for your patience, your hard work, and for giving every roast the best possible beginning. ❤️☕

Great coffee is a chain of good decisions... and the very first one is how the cherries are harvested.

☕Mitko, Lolo Mitko

25/06/2026

Just a quick heads-up, friends. 😊

I’ll be traveling to Europe for about a month, so the roaster will be taking a little vacation too.

If you’ve been thinking about ordering some coffee, I’ll be roasting and shipping until the end of next week - July 3. After that, new orders will have to wait until I’m back in August.

No pressure at all — just wanted to let everyone know in advance so nobody is surprised if I disappear for a while. 😄

The coffee will be waiting for me when I get back… and hopefully you’ll be waiting too. 😊

☕ Bulgarian Lolo. Philippine Beans.

24/06/2026

Chocolate?
More chocolate?
Even more chocolate…
Wait… this is coffee. 😂

No blend. No flavoring. Just beautifully roasted Philippine single-origin coffee. Whether it’s from Bukidnon or Sagada, nature sometimes creates flavors that are hard to believe. ☕🇵🇭

24/06/2026

☕ Coffee Talk with Lolo Mitko

Do coffee tasting notes really exist… or are we just making them up?

While buying coffee today, a friend asked me an interesting question.

He looked at the tasting notes on a bag of coffee and asked:

“Are these flavors really there, or do roasters just invent them?”

Fair question.

The truth is that tasting notes are not ingredients added to the coffee.

If a bag says:
🍫 Chocolate
🍊 Citrus
🫐 Berries

it doesn’t mean someone mixed chocolate, oranges, or berries into the beans.

These are simply flavors and aromas that some people recognize when they taste the coffee.

But here’s the important part:

Not everyone tastes the same things.

Sometimes I roast a coffee that is supposed to have five different flavor notes according to the producer, importer, or cupping report.

And honestly?

I may find only one or two of them.

Someone else may find completely different ones.

Neither of us is wrong.

Coffee tasting notes are not a recipe.
They’re a description of an experience.

In the end, the most important question isn’t:

“Can you taste blueberries?”

It’s:

“Do you enjoy what’s in the cup?”

Because the best tasting note is still:

☕ “This is good coffee.”

— Lolo Mitko

20/06/2026

☕ A Coffee Thought from Lolo Mitko

For years, we’ve been told the same thing:

Arabica is good. Robusta is bad.

After all, Robusta is often associated with cheap instant coffee, bitterness, and harsh flavors.

Today, I roasted a single-origin Robusta from Barangay Pigtauranan, Bukidnon, Mindanao.

What I expected:
• bitterness
• harshness
• rough earthy notes

What I found instead:

• smooth body
• natural sweetness
• almost no bitterness
• a flavor that reminded me of fine milk chocolate

It made me realize something.

Perhaps the problem isn’t Robusta.

Perhaps the problem is that most people have never tasted a carefully grown, carefully processed, and carefully roasted Robusta.

Behind every coffee are farmers, families, and communities working hard to produce something they can be proud of.

The coffee from Barangay Pigtauranan surprised me in the best possible way.

A good coffee is not defined by the species alone.

It’s defined by the people who grow it, the care taken after harvest, the roasting, and ultimately… what’s in the cup.

This Robusta challenged my own assumptions.

And that’s one of the things I love most about coffee.

☕ Mitko, Lolo Mitko

20/06/2026