2 posts tagged “tagaytay”
We spent the weekend with some relatives in Silang, Cavite, and around Tagaytay. The weather was awesome; by the time we were leaving, the fog was already crawling up the mountainside and limited road visibility to near zero. Adding to it was the constant rains. It was great!
So I just settled for what I could do: Stare blankly at the wall. I do it pretty well, methinks.
Besides that, I wrote down a handful of haiku during the twilight hours; about two very good ones, and the rest needing revision. The environment was just perfect for writing poetry; surrounded by a forest and a cold, foggy, rainy night... inspiration came without too much effort.
Anyway, come morning, activity picked up, and we cooked up some coffee and breakfast, which was interesting. Most Filipinos boil coffee (which I think is stupid since that way the coffee gets burned), and after they did theirs, I taught them the right way to do it with the limited devices available to them at the time (more on this in another post).
After that, we just lounged around, playing cards, shooting pool, and generally just trading jabs with each other. And there was this thing too:
But I had some anyway, since Starbucks' tea bores me. Besides, I had a waffle to console me. :3
Now the cool thing about this particular Starbucks branch in Tagaytay was that it was situated on the mountainside facing Taal lake, plus the recently added upper deck. The open-air upper deck that provided an unobstructed view of the mountainside, the lake, and the volcano... it was majestic. It was raining, it was foggy, and the view from the deck was like something out of an ancient Chinese novel, if you will.
Yesterday we happened to be on our way to Batangas, south of the capital, and we stopped over at this coffee shop along Aguinaldo Highway in Tagaytay called Bag of Beans. BoB is basically a coffee shop, bakery, and a garden restaurant all at the same time. They serve pies, steaks, and coffee. And the coffee, of course, is the focus of this particular post.
We've gone past Bag of Beans many times on our previous trips through the area, so this time we decided to check it out. We parked just in front of it and checked out the shop, before heading down into the dining area. Here's the cool part: The dining area is an outdoor garden situated below the shop that you can see along the highway; it's accessible through the pathway beside the shop that leads you a little bit down the side of the hill that the shop and the highway itself is situated on.
The garden dining area is very pleasant and conducive to having a relaxed conversation over coffee or tea. You can choose between uncovered wooden tables with benches, covered booths, and tables situated right beneath blooming foliage. It's really suited to the weather; imagine yourself drinking a hot cup of coffee, with the cold air lightly blowing through the garden, kicking up some of the fallen leaves on the ground.
It was, however, drizzling, so we had to go into a covered dining area. We ordered lunch - steak and fries - and of course, coffee.
Bag of Beans serves homegrown coffee, straight out of Amadeo, Cavite. While they sell whole beans and blends of more variety at the shop, they only have the Barako and the drip varieties available á la carte. First up, I ordered their Barako coffee.
The BoB Barako is a bold coffee that has a medium body, a sharp citrusy taste and earthy undertones. I just didn't like the fact that as it cooled, it started tasting more and more burnt. Not cool.
The regular Drip Coffee that BoB served me was a slightly more pleasant experience. A coffee with light body, a similar but slightly milder citrus flavor, subtler earthy undertones, and a clean finish. It retained the same characteristics as it cooled. It's a less intense though much more pleasant experience than that of their Barako variety, if you will.
Both coffees served to me were dark roasts (gotta admit that I thought that all dark roasted coffees would have stronger flavors... figures, guess I'm still a n00b), of Liberica and Arabica beans, respectively.
I guess it's a trait of the majority of coffees produced here in the Philippines, this strong citrus flavor. It features prominently in Figaro's coffee, which serves only coffee from local producers, as well as from Starbuck's Kape Vinta Blend. I hate both of them. That's not to say it's a bad kind of coffee, I just have a preference for coffees without that certain characteristic (which is why I also don't like coffees from Sumatra and Sulawesi, albeit to a lesser degree). Despite that, I can still appreciate such coffee, as long as it doesn't taste burnt.
On the whole, the experience of dining and drinking coffee at Bag of Beans is pleasant. I would say that the coffee tastes pretty good (if you prefer the kind of coffee they serve - just OK for me), the food is good, the environment is fantastic, thus, overall, it's a winning combination.
Here are some more photos for you scope the place out.
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