SPAIN?s legacy to the Philippines goes beyond the fiesta, the siesta and the Catholic faith.

Along with more than 300 years of colonial rule, it also literally planted the seeds of a coffee industry that is finally perking up after years of simmering on the back burner.

The revival of government and private sector interest in the cash crop, first planted in 1741, can be attributed largely to the efforts of the Philippine Coffee Board, a non-profit, private sector-led organization dedicated to increasing local production of Philippine coffee, and promoting market appreciation for it.

One of the board?s indefatigable champions is 51-year-old Manny Torrejon, a coffee roaster by profession and a coffee lover by passion, whose destiny has been twined with the heady brew since his college days at De La Salle University.

?Early on, I was intrigued by the coffee world and I wanted to be a coffee maven,? Torrejon recounts. ?At first, the mystique of coffee lured me into learning more about it through books, travels and acquaintances in the coffee world. I was lucky to have worked in a company that afforded me the opportunity to learn more about coffee. The more I journeyed through the coffee world, the more I thirsted for the product.?

In that company, Torrejon learned the ropes of coffee trading and exporting the local crop to the American market. Then he learned about roasting and processing, and eventually, retailing.

?Through all these experiences, I learned to love and embrace coffee. Then, the passion started to kick in,? Torrejon says.

It is that passion that pushes Torrejon to spend considerable time away from his own coffee roasting and consulting business to implement the programs of the Philippine Coffee Board, which is working to bring back at least some of the coffee sector?s good old days.

One does not have to look farther than the palatial homes and the imposing churches of Lipa in Batangas to realize how big an impact the world?s most popular beverage had on Philippine society in the 1800s.

At that time, the Philippines was the world?s fourth largest exporter of coffee. Its primary export to Spain was high grade Arabica, which came mainly from Lipa, then the nerve center of the booming coffee sector that eventually spread to other provinces like Benguet in the north, Negros Occidental in the Visayas and Bukidnon in Mindanao.

?Lipa was booming, and it was actually called Villa de Lipa. Most of the rich Lipenos had coffee farms, so the wealth was coming from the coffee harvests. Most of the old houses in Lipa were built from the proceeds of a thriving coffee industry. That was how important coffee was to Lipa?s development,? Torrejon says.

Those heady days came to an abrupt end when coffee rust disease hit the plantations and income from the blighted harvests started to decline. After World War II, the farmers replaced the more expensive but vulnerable Arabica variety with the cheaper but hardier Robusta, the primary bean used in making instant coffee.

The coffee sector was never the same again. As decades passed, the Philippines was transformed from a coffee exporting country to a big coffee importer, especially with the local demand for coffee growing on the heels of a burgeoning café culture.

Torrejon, however, is optimistic that the Philippines still has what it takes to become a major player in the coffee business once more. Well maybe not at the same level as it was during the Spanish occupation, but at least to a point where it will be able to produce all the coffee that the local market needs.

The Philippines today consumes about 65,000 tons of coffee a year but is only able to produce a maximum of 30,000 tons, providing a huge market opportunity to coffee farmers.

For one thing, the Philippines is one of only a handful of countries where all the four main commercial varieties are available ? Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa and Liberica, or the Barako bean. And that means that the Philippines can indeed be self-sufficient.

?Although our production of coffee has declined from the ?80s, we, through the Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Coffee Board, are trying to increase production through the ?Pilipinas Gumising at Magkape? program as we have a large demand locally for coffee,? Torrejon says.

Under this program, coffee farmers are provided with inputs like fertilizers and farm implements to rehabilitate their farms. Farmers have also been encouraged to produce specialty Arabica coffee through new planting, harvesting and drying techniques. All are geared toward significantly increasing coffee yield per hectare in two years.

?So far, we have been successful in a limited way. But we will get there and build a niche market for high quality Philippine Arabica coffee beans,? Torrejon says.

And that market should be the Filipinos themselves. After all, Torrejon says, Filipinos deserve more than just instant, 3-in-1 coffee. ?