Tucked in busy Mandaluyong, this café is a respite with sustainable coffee and delicious food

Rainy days beg for a steaming mug of coffee and a snug reading nook you can claim as your own. The Giving Café, tucked in a busy Mandaluyong intersection, has both with an added bonus: With each cup of coffee you purchase, you are able to help a local coffee farmer from the Benguet highlands.

The Giving Café’s remarkable story goes way back in 2004 when owner and director for Foundation for Sustainable Coffee Excellence (FSCE) Michael Harris Conlin started coffee roasting company Conlins. With sustainable coffee in mind and with over 15 years in the coffee industry, Conlin put up different platforms for the benefit of coffee farmers.

According to Conlin, The Giving Café “started off as the Giving Caravan which has the goal of spreading love, friendship, and thanksgiving by giving out free taste of coffees grown in the coffee communities we work with in Benguet.” FSCE has been supporting coffee farmers in Benguet for the past 15 years.

“The idea was to bring attention to our local coffees and the needs of our local coffee farmers. The program was so successful that we created three platforms that can be adopted and replicated by other social entrepreneurs: the Giving Caravan, the Giving Cafe and the Giving Cart.” 

He further explained, “The Giving Café is called as such because for every purchase of coffee and other selected items on the menu, a portion of the proceeds go towards one of the five purposes of FSCE.”

These five purposes which are all for the benefit of La Trinidad coffee farmers and their families are: The Giving Well, which ensures they have access to potable water; Beans for the Little Ones, provides free vaccinations; Beans within Reach, connects the farmers to buyers; Cup to Seed raises funds for farmers after each coffee season; and Coffee for Great Minds provides scholarships.

Each year they give two scholarships hoping to instill in the farmer’s children an interest in coffee farming, because coffee can only be sustainable if there are still farmers. “The goal is to inspire these children to start farming, to show them that coffee is sexy, coffee is fun, and that there is so much passion in coffee.”

The Giving Café has cozy interiors that Conlin says “is like an extension of our living room. It features our history, our family, our vision, our beliefs, and dreams.” 
Adding to the welcoming feel of The Giving Café are the random personal memorabilia from the different members of the Conlin clan- there are Lego toys, old suitcases, books, and other quirkier finds. There are also many Instagrammable nooks as well as a quaint reading corner.

Amid its good intentions and beautiful interiors, The Giving Café doesn’t forget what it is: a coffee shop. It serves great coffee and delicious comfort food. Conlin is proud of their local specialty coffees, the coffee flights, timplado, the TGC blends, and the Gesha village selections. They have coffee for the most discerning taste buds to those who are fans of reliable 3-in-1 varieties.

Another aspect that sets this Café apart from other coffee shops is that it serves both Chinese and Filipino comfort food, a nod to the Filipino-Chinese heritage of the Conlins. 

Conlin recommends their version of Filipino favorites champorado (your choice of powdered or condensed milk) and pansit sotanghon; and Chinese mainstay sweet and sour pork and Taiwanese fried chicken with lu rou fan (rice with minced pork) a dish he first encountered as a student in Canada and found himself immediately enamored of.

He also encourages customers to try their special wheat pandesal, “Its recipe has been passed down three generations in dad’s family. It is best paired with Timplado.” — LA, GMA News

The Giving Cafe is located on the corner of Sheridan cor. Pines streets in Mandaluyong. It is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm.