Hibok-Hibok Brew – Camiguin for Coffee Lovers

Hibok-Hibok Brew from Camiguin – Camiguin for Coffee Lovers! What a surprise, today we discovered “Mount Hibok-Hibok Brew”, the first coffee from Camiguin.

This morning, after having checked what typhoon MAYSAK/Chedeng is doing out there in the east, I had a look into facebook. I found an article from Jack Wasmoeth showing a pack of coffee, sayin it comes from Camiguin. Fortunately Jack published the contact number. We called the number and learned that this coffee isn’t a belated April hoax, but it is real.

Hibok-Hibok Brew

The climate of Camiguin made us expect that growing coffee should be possible. We also saw some wild coffee bushes on the slopes of our 7 volcanoes. But until now, Camiguin had been a coffee desert. As passionate coffee lovers we like to brew fresh ground coffee in our real Italian coffee machine – a De Longhi. But all we found here in Camiguin is this awful “Nescafé 3 in 1” and sometimes some ground coffee at Vjandep. We therefore bought our coffee always at Lehmann’s in Naga City.

And today our dream became true: Coffee from Camiguin. We called Salomé on 0926 179 0646 and went to her house downtown Mambajao. Salomé explained that the coffee grows over in Catarman on the west coast of Camiguin in the foothills of Mount Hibok-Hibok. This still small plantation is a joint PRRM-DISOP project. PRRM stands for “Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement“. DISOP stands for “Dienst voor Internationale Samenwerking aan Ontwikkelings Projecten“ or Organization for International Co-operation on Development Projects. This is a Belgian private, non-stock, non-profit organization established in 1961.

The project is still young. This why the coffee beans are brought from Camiguin to Gingoog for roasting and packing. But the coffee beans are 100% Camiguin grown. Unfortunately the coffee is available only in ground form in 250 gram vacuum packs. Salomé told us that on request she could provide us with non-ground beans in the future. Happy days lay ahead of us …

Mt. Hibok-Hibok Brew is available in 250 gram vacuum packs. The 250 grams are sold at PHP 160. Hurry, the stock we saw this afternoon will not last for a long time.

For Coffee Lovers

We bought one kilogram of this coffee – ran home – turned on our ‘De Longhi’ and made a wonderfully tasting coffee. Our first verdict: The coffee should be ground finer for a real coffee machine. It should be OK for the filter brewing pots. The taste is excellent and we observed a nice and steady crema. Next test will be tomorrow morning with a virgin palate from the night. We don’t think that is possible to make reasonable espresso because the powder is not ground fine enough. If you want, you can join us for a cup of Mt. Hibok-Hibok Brew. Just text us to make sure we are in.

Read more about DISOP’s work in Camiguin. 

[GARD]