How four friends turned their passion for coffee into a successful business
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Simple pleasures at home kept people going though the series of pandemic lockdowns: the cyclical life of sushi bake for breakfast, lunch, merienda, or dinner; the iconic yellow and purple combo of an ube cheese pan de sal; and finally, the everyday arm workout while preparing dalgona coffee.
These new homegrown “hobbies” rarely came cheap as one might have to assume different roles—baker, cook, barista—to make things happen, and with it, costly kitchen appliances that were deemed essentials.
Coffee, above all, is an experience, not just another drink you chug down in break of day. That slow ease of ritually roasting your coffee in the morning has already reached urban-legend status, with all age groups believing they cannot do without it.
Everyday Coffee Roasters, however, believes in one thing: that anybody can enjoy coffeeshop-quality brews at home without spending a fortune on expensive equipment.
"Coffeeshop quality" coffee
The story of Everday Coffee Roasters began five years ago when a casual coffee date of four friends sparked a serious question: Why do people prefer having coffee when travelling to different locations? Is the experience of savoring coffee beans indigenous to the area a kind of roadmap that helps the traveler’s overall feel of the place?
Soon enough, the quartet chipped in their shared resources to purchase their first coffee roaster and other gear. It was all for the simple delight of drinking the coffee they want.
“[We] offered ourselves good coffee that we couldn’t have. Soon enough we all started enrolling in coffee schools here in PH and elsewhere,” Iggy Tan, one of its founders, said.
No sooner than the sessions began, the four friends realized there is more to roasting and brewing coffee than meets the eye.
“That encouraged me to learn further, that we need to keep on roasting a wide variety of coffee beans, and have a platform for people to conveniently access specialty coffee so we can validate what we’ve learned,” added Tan.
Summoning their rich background in tech start-ups, Tan and his team began putting together an e-commerce platform tailored-fit for Everyday Coffee Roasters’ brand identity. The fit was more than they had expected. In no time, everydaycoffee.ph opened its virtual doors to make their brand of coffee not only accessible but enjoyable to everyone.
Premium and freshly roasted, Everyday Coffee Roasters’ beans can be delivered to you within 48 hours after roasting. Done in small batches to ensure freshness, you can order their products online via their website, which features brewing manuals for each kind: a helpful guide before checking out your chosen beans. If you need equipment for your coffee, they also have aeropress kits that you can order.
“We want our customers to experience fresh coffee at its best flavor, just a few days after being roasted to perfection,” their website says, promising an impeccable level of freshness for every packet.
Sourced from all around the world, their premium green bean coffee comes from high-quality growers, and roasted with care to bring out each flavor’s unique characteristic.
Unique and homegrown
Suited as a daily brew, Everyday Coffee Roasters’ international blends boast of unique tastes handpicked for the discriminating coffee afficionado: the Aerin Blend, a crowd favorite for home-espresso machines (P600); the Sagada Cordillera Mountains (P650); and the Rwanda Ngoma (P795).
For now, their beans come from the Arabica variety “with traceable details such as elevation, process, and more.”
If by any chance you want to pair your coffee with specialty food, Hilltop by Everyday Coffee Roasters is the place to go. The coffeeshop offers delectable choices ranging from the famous Mount Matutum Coffee Croissant to the Sagada Latte Ice Pop.
They also serve Nespresso-compatible capsules, an ingenious product which stands as proof of the wide range of possibilities thereby coffee can be served. It is their way of encouraging their coffee suppliers to find ways to develop their beans.
A meaningful partnership
The success of Everyday Coffee Roasters, Tan said, wouldn’t be possible outside of the qualities the foursome shared: transparency (“the most important of all”), each other’s approachability and flexibility—being open to change and with the drive to learn.
“We always have healthy disagreements as it creates better ideas. But at the end of the day, we respect each other’s point of view and head in the direction that the majority agrees [on].”
Tan added that “success is not built overnight,” but with consistent learning from failures along the way.
Despite the growing number of Filipino coffee brands (let alone the growing market of mass-produced brands by corporations), Everyday Coffee Roasters stands as a globally-competitive trademark with proudly Filipino-made products sourced from across the archipelago.
They recently started opening retail concepts over the past months to learn more about coffee and how to connect e-commerce to the traditional store setup. The Hilltop Studio located at Horseshoe, Quezon City, is where the magic happens.
The launch of Everyday Coffee Roasters’ Tasting Room at SM Santa Rosa Laguna was the result of what they’ve learned as part of SM’s StartUp.
“It's our concept to provide fresh-roasted coffees and specialty coffee beverages to our Laguna customers. What is fantastic is that we’ve created a brand that scarcely faced competition when we first started. Today, our coffee is accessible anywhere in the Philippines with just a tap on your phone,” Tan shared.
Another fantastic feat? Everyday Coffee Roasters is on the move to pushing the brand all-across Asia through the e-commerce space. It’s about time.
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Editor’s Note: BrandedUp is designed to provide you with insightful, inspiring and educational content created by PhilSTAR L!fe in collaboration with brands like Everyday Coffee Roasters.
