The earth gives us gifts through the plants that grow on it. From these, we gain vegetables and fruits, and the meat we consume are also fed and made plump by these resources.
Marielle Aguilar, 28, is a teacher by profession. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, she lived independently in Metro Manila, but when education shifted to online learning, she returned to her family home in Magallanes, Cavite.
In Magallanes, her family has a five hectare farm filled with a wide variety of fruit-bearing trees such as santol, mango, langka, coconut, banana, and more. The land was acquired by her grandmother decades ago, and the farm was started in 2015 by her parents to provide for their family’s food.
After two years of the country being under strict quarantine, Aguilar received news that teaching was going to return to normal, which meant she would possibly be going back to teaching in a school classroom.
But Aguilar had already fallen in love with working from home. More than that, she fell in love with the nature and peace she was surrounded by in Magallanes. “I decided to go here, stay here, and not go back to Metro Manila,” she said.
However, Magallanes is a secluded part of Cavite. There aren’t a lot of big establishments that could provide leisure, entertainment, or employment like in Manila. “The big establishments here are just 7-11 and Alfamart,” Aguilar explained. “There are no malls, no banks, no Jollibee or Mcdo. There’s no huge opportunity here if you were going to be an employee.”
Aguilar couldn’t see a good opportunity for her as an employee in Magallanes, so she decided on the next best thing. “I decided to come up with my own business and to maximize what my parents have started, which is their farm.”
As a coffee lover, Aguilar immediately thought of opening a cafe in Magallanes. “What I like in Metro Manila is the convenience of life. When you go out of your house, you can already grab your breakfast and coffee. But here? No. Just 3-in-1 [coffee],” she said with a laugh.
Since her family had a farm, Aguilar already had an idea on the product that her cafe will focus on. The family farm had plenty of crops, but after participating in a seminar by the Department of Agriculture (DA) about cacao, Aguilar’s father dedicated around 5000 square meters to raise cacao.
Marielle Aguilar, owner of Earth’s Cup Coffee and Cacao Farm, with her father, the main farmer and manager of the farm. (Marielle Aguilar)
Aside from coffee, cacao was perfect for a cafe drink and pastry. So, Aguilar spent half a year studying how to open a business, and in September 2022, the Earth’s Cup Coffee and Cacao Farm opened.
Falling in love with cacao
The family farm has been active since 2015, and is usually managed by Aguilar’s father. Her parents came from a military background, but after retirement they attended seminars and participated in different agri projects in order to learn farming.
“One that captivated the heart of my father, among all other things, is cacao,” Aguilar said.
Among the trees on their farm, their cacao is relatively young as they have only been planted less than five years ago. The DA held a seminar about cacao in Magallanes and gave seedlings. They currently have around 150 cacao trees. “It’s still really a small-scale farm because my dad is the only laborer,” said Aguilar.
Aguilar’s father is the sole laborer in their cacao farm and processes the cacao himself. (Marielle Aguilar)
Everyday, Aguilar’s father harvests two to three ripe cacao pods from the farm and manually processes it into different products. Cacao beans, nibs, and tablea are often sold by the family. To make powder for the cafe, the cacao pods are fermented, sundried, and ground.
At the cafe, Aguilar sells cacao-based drinks that are popular with non-coffee drinkers. “We have sticky cocoa latte, cocoa matcha latte, and we also have cocoa husk tea,” she said. The cocoa husk tea, in particular, is one of their bestsellers since it tastes like an americano coffee but without the caffeine. “If you would like to stop drinking coffee, you could have that as an alternative. It’s even high in antioxidants.”
The cacao husk tea is a bestselling drink for the non-coffee lovers. (Marielle Aguilar)
They also use their very own cacao powder to make pastries in the cafe. Aside from food and drinks, the cafe also displays and promotes the farm’s tablea and cacao powder for retail selling.
Although the cacao-based drinks are popular with the public, a cafe is usually visited for coffee. Aguilar partnered with Magallanes coffee farmers to gain a steady supply of locally sourced coffee beans.
A leap of faith
As a teacher, Aguilar had no real experience in establishing a business, so building the Earth’s Cup Coffee and Cacao Farm was a leap of faith for her.
Aside from loving coffee, she is also fond of smoothies. So she looked at their farm and realized how they had a lot of fruits like passion fruit and strawberries, besides the cacao. “I thought, ‘What can our farm do for us?”
She resigned from teaching in 2021, and for the next few months she became a student. “ I spent half a year studying everything,” she said. “It was just Youtube University and I also read TESDA online courses,” she said.
It took half a year for Aguilar to learn how to establish a business and create drinks, like this Sticky Cocoa Latte, for her cafe. (Marielle Aguilar)
As she conceptualized her business, Aguilar saved whatever she could and slowly purchased furniture and equipment her cafe would need. Bit by bit, she was building the cafe.
“I will never know, right? If I will never try. That’s why I just trusted my guts,” she said.
By September, everything was complete and Aguilar was ready for her first day. On the cafe’s opening day, she was pleasantly surprised that there were a lot of people that loved the drinks her cafe offered. She believes that aside from her drinks, the cafe’s minimalistic design has charmed customers into appreciating both the food and ambiance the space has to offer.
The cafe is the first in Magallanes with a fresh and minimalistic design. (Marielle Aguilar)
It was also fortunate that she was able to build the cafe right on her family’s land, and just a five to ten minute walk from the farm. Cacao was easily accessible and Aguilar envisions different ways to involve the farm more into her business.
“Our trees, although already bearing fruit, are still young. But when it matures, they will bear so much fruit. Maybe after two or three years, but I would really like to have that concept of self-picking,” she said.
She would also like to explore selling her cafe’s products into more areas such as bazaars in order to promote Magallanes' locally made cacao and coffee in other areas. “We can cater to a lot more [people]. That there is a Magallanes that has a lot of products,” she said. “It’s not just Batangas, not just Baguio that has good coffee, but there is also Magallanes.”
Roasted cacao beans which can be used in making the cafe’s drinks. (Marielle Aguilar)
Sustainability is also important for Aguilar, so she emphasizes how her cafe employs various sustainable practices such as not using single-use plastics, and using the cafe’s scraps, like used coffee grounds, for fertilizer at the farm.
READ: Leap of faith: Six encouraging tips from a teacher turned agribusiness owner
There isn’t a day that Aguilar regrets staying in the province rather than going back to the convenience the Metro offers. “The peace is untradeable,” she said. “I really love the peace this place gave me. I don’t have to rush, I don’t have to compete. Aside from that I am helping my community.”
Photos courtesy of Marielle Aguilar