The CEO of Port of Mokha Coffee was just supposed to conduct a talk via Skype but as fate would have it, he was in Taiwan when the appointment was made and he found out that the Philippines was just a two-hour flight from Taipei. So he flew on over to do his talk in person.
Conlin immediately reached out to the Yemeni after reading the book, hoping to get pointers to do for Philippine coffee what Alkhanshali’s did for Yemeni coffee. In a surprise twist, the cupping team served a coffee made out of “quakers” for the last cup. This was, by their standards, rejects and low-quality coffee. Interestingly enough, what was low quality for this group was already acceptable by normal fast-food standards. The quaker coffee was bland and had no nuance at all. When asked why they did this, Alkhanshali just grinned mischievously and said, “You have to taste good coffee to know bad coffee.
The Grand Hyatt Manila’s coffee shop, Florentine, has a P1-million Slayer espresso machine as its centerpiece while the hotel’s staff take barista courses at The Institute for Coffee Excellence to be able to talk to guests about Philippine single origin coffee, as well as sharpen their skills behind the coffee counter to consistently make espressos, americanos, cappuccinos, and lattes.