Low cost Coffee Roaster by Ruel Mojica

No coffee can be good in the mouth that does not first send a sweet offering of odor to the nostrils. Thus, the famous line of Henry Ward Beecher, which has now found its way in the personalized coffee mugs sold nationwide.

Filipinos love to drink coffee. Drinking coffee is a favorite pastime and an engaging social activity for many of us. The sprouting of various coffee shops in almost every corner of the metro has become the most evident indication that the coffee shop industry is a thriving business.

Our love for coffee was basically brought about by the colonization of the country by the Spaniards more than two centuries ago when they turned our highlands into coffee plantations. They loved the perfect mix of heat, humidity and cold plus the wet and dry tropical climate that made the cultivation of coffee well suited in the Philippines.

Growing coffee became such a profitable venture that for a while, the Philippines was one of the leading coffee-producing nations during the 19th century. But due to the coffee rust disease such reputation was cut short. It was during this time that the Latin American countries battled it out and dominated the global coffee market.

In the Philippines, the coffee plantations are mostly concentrated in the mountains of Batangas, Bukidnon, Benguet, Cavite, Kalinga-Apayao, Davao , Claveria, and Misamis Oriental. Approximately 60,000 – 80,000 families with roughly 120,000 hectares of productive land grow coffee. These lands are both home and production unit for our local coffee growers.

The Key to Good Coffee is Bean Roasting

In a recent market study conducted by Ronald Mark G. Omaña of the Center for Food and Agri Business University of Asia and the Pacific, he cited “coffee bean roasting formula as the critical factor” among major specialty coffee shop owners in the Philippines as “ it is this stage where the coffee bean releases its fullest flavor potential. Poorly roasted beans would yield poor-tasting coffee drink.”

For coffee connoisseur and self-confessed addicts, the difference always lies in how the coffee was prepared. Before, we were used to drinking instant coffees, simply because they are ubiquitous and are easy to prepare.

But with the emergence of specialty coffee shops both foreign and local brands, even the tongue that was once used to drinking instant coffees are now craving for the “real coffee”—made from coffee beans grown in ideal climates and prepared according to standards, thus the distinct rich taste and flavor.

Before your rich coffee ends in your favorite mug and be enjoyed, it must first undergo several processes, one of which is roasting.

Roasting coffee is the process of applying heat to transform the chemical and physical properties of green coffee beans into roasted coffee products. By applying heat, impurities in the beans are dried off for oxidizing products. This process is integral in producing a savory cup of coffee. Right amount of heat, right timing, in a uniform manner are required to achieve the desired flavor from the beans.

The Heat Problem in Coffee Roasting

Coffee shops in the Philippines continue to thrive by the numbers. But most of them are under franchising arrangements with big, foreign companies. These franchising companies can afford expensive roasters and other costly equipment.

With huge processing equipment, an ordinary coffee grower cannot compete with them. There might be a few available coffee roasters for smallscale roasting but they may not turn out as efficient as the expensive ones, resulting to poor quality roasted beans.

Since coffee roasting involves proper heat application, common problems encountered include the uneven distribution of heat inside the roasting chamber and the lack of insulating materials which results to excessive heat loss.

There is, therefore, a need for locally manufactured coffee roaster specifically for smallscale roasting purposes to boost the smallscale coffee growers in the country.

Low Cost Coffee Roaster for Smallscale Business

Responding to this problem, Engr. Ruel M. Mojica of the Cavite State University (CaVSU) and Dr. Engelbert K. Peralta of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) developed the first ever batch-type coffee roaster that can be used for small-scale roasting.

The coffee roaster was designed and fabricated at the College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology in UPLB wherein the machine’s performance was also evaluated. The prototype coffee roaster is made up of six major parts: roasting chamber, outside drum, auger, heating plate, and burner. Parameters used during the evaluation included: auger speed, roasting time, valve opening, and fuel consumption.

Results of the performance evaluation, showed that the machine had varying levels of auger speed. However, the varying speed made no significant effect on all the response variables. They also found an increase in roasting time which decreased the weight and moisture content of the roasted beans.

Varying the levels of valve opening was found to have significant effects on the weight and moisture content of the roasted beans as well as the fuel consumption of the machine. No significant effect was noted on the roasting capacity of the machine.

In terms of sensory evaluation, coffee obtained using treatment combination of 40-rpm auger speed, 60-minute roasting time, and 3/4 open valve obtained the highest coffee rating of 86.1.

In the cost and return analysis, results showed that using this coffee roaster for smallscale custom work can be a profitable business venture with a potential net income of P63, 451.49 annually.

Some Innovations

The prototype model of the batch-type coffee roaster was first completed in 2005 but further innovations are being done to further improve the capability of the developed machine.

These are:

1. evaluation of the machine using other coffee varieties (e.g. Arabica, Liberica, etc.);
2. development of a microcontroller-based temperature control unit and software that would control the operation of the machine for a given period of time,
3. evaluation of the machine using other crops (e.g. cacao, peanut) aside from coffee; and
4. use of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to determine the optimum operating conditions of the machine.

For more information, please contact the project leader, Engr. Ruel M. Mojica at the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, CaVSU at telephone no. (046) 415-0021 or fax no. (046) 415-0012 or through his mobile number: 09272510497 or e-mail him at ruelmojica@yahoo.com

Author: Rita T. dela Cruz, BAR Digest. This article was based on the study, “Development and Evaluation of Batch-type Coffee Roaster for Small-Scale Roasting” by Engr. Ruel M. Mojica of the Cavite State University (CaVSU), Indang, Cavite, Philippines.

Dragon Fruit from Tambong Balagbag

Edilberto Rodil Silan started the Dragon Fruit business six years ago, he started by trying out the trimmings of the plant from the 5 hectare farm in Tambo Balagbag of a Chinese Businessman, Mr. Alex Liton who first brought Dragon Fruit with imported planting materials from Taiwan.

Mr. Silan together with former Governor Juanito Remulla, experimented on how to grow the Dragon Fruit themselves since they have no idea yet if the exotic fruit can manage their local planting resources. The two must have green thumbs as they have grown the fruits successfully in the Cavite Uplands.

People’s familiarity with the Dragon Fruit.

Since the fruit is not common in the Philippines, locals were not patronizing it. Many years ago, farmers tried introducing Dragon Fruit in wet markets selling it for a humble price of almost as low as P20 per kilo on visually morphed or slightly damaged ones. It was only the foreigners especially the Chinese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese who avidly bought the produce. Mr. Silan added that the first Cavite city/town that accepted the Dragon Fruit in the market was Tagaytay City probably because its growing 1^st class population, including tourists.

Sugar palm vinegar from Indang

Arengga vinegar in Indang

From the lowly sukang irok or sugar palm vinegar that is being peddled in the streets of this town, a couple formerly engaged in the frosted bottling business discovered a gold mine that changed the meaning of vinegar and helped save endangered mammals.

Arengga vinegar from a variety of sugar palm tree known as kaong or irok (Arengga pinnata) is now bottled into frosted bottles sealed with roll and pilfer-proof caps and has already reached as far as Los Angeles and Japan. It was the preferred vinegar of the international chefs who joined the recently held “chefs on parade” in Manila.

Sukang irok

But Vie and Basil Reyes, owners of Bote Central Inc., the company that develops and bottles the vinegar, have more and bigger plans to sustain the vinegar business that revives history and could save the endangered palm civets (Paradoxorus hermaphroditus) or locally known as alamid, the musang (Paradoxorus philipinesis) and the cloud rats.

“With Arengga vinegar, we also hope to change the culture of vinegar into a delicious drink that can be displayed on the dinner table like wines,” Vie said, as she finished her glass of vinegar juice.

Arengga vinegar mixed with honey and ice makes a good tasting energy and drink. The juice tastes like a perfect blend of pineapple, orange, mango and passion fruit juice that has been stored for a long time.

“In the morning, you can have Arengga vinegar as a health drink as it really will energize you,” Basil said. “But in the evening, mixed with vodka, it’s now called ‘let’s drink’.”

The couple had been in the frosted bottling business for eight years. In fact, the former company, Braveheart Inc., was the only company in the Philippines that made frosted bottles for a liquor company. A local perfume company also bought the small frosted bottles.

But when the two companies stopped ordering frosted bottles two years ago, the couple started searching for a business where they could still use the equipment, plant and the machines they invested on for the frosted bottling business.

“Last year, we were really in the lowest low when Vie and I passed by Indang and saw a peddler of sukang irok on the highway,” Basil said. “We bought some vinegar and were impressed when we discovered where it came from.”

For two months, the couple studied the vinegar, processed it, and bottled it into frosted bottles.

The couple had found a new business.

Only sugar palm vinegar

Vie and Basil discovered to their amazement that what they had found in town was the world’s only sugar palm vinegar from the kaong tree.

It takes the tree 10 to 15 years before it can be tapped for its sweet sap used in making the vinegar.

The Arenga pinnata tree has a life cycle of about 15 to 22 years. If propagated by man, the tree has a shorter life span.

In Indang, the abundance of sugar palm trees is mainly due to its natural propagators, which are the alamid, musang and the cloud rats.

The alamid climbs up the tree, eats the kaong fruit, goes down and excretes the seeds into the ground. From the kaong seeds that have been exposed to the alamid’s stomach enzymes, the trees grow healthier and longer.

Unfortunately, like the Arenga pinnata, their numbers are diminishing as they are caught for pets, sold, or worse, some local folks would even kill the alamid and cook it for pulutan.

The cloud rat, also an endangered species that is only found in the Philippines, also uses the tree as its habitat.

Price of urbanization

The kaong trees used to abound in the ravines of Cavite — from Carmona to the towns of Mendez and Alfonso. But urbanization has greatly diminished their numbers.

Vie and Basil found a thriving colony of kaong trees only in Indang, where natural springs provide them with water.

The couple started buying vinegar since March last year. At first it was not easy for them to buy the sukang irok but became easier as they made friends.

Another difficulty was the fact that only a few mangangarit (palm tree caretaker) are still engaged in the job of getting the sweet sap of the kaong’s flowers that is used for making the vinegar.

Collecting the sweet sap of the kaong tree is never easy. A mangangarit has to check and rock the flowering stalk once everyday until the flowers bloom and attract hundreds of fruit flies.

Only then will the flowering stalk be ready for tapping and collection, as the mangangarit would cut the stalk where the sap would drip. The mangangarit would collect the sweet sap in the morning and the sour sap in the evening, climbing as high as 7 meters using bamboo poles.

The sap is collected using a bamboo container known as the tukil.

The sweet sap is then placed in vitrified earthen jars or tapayans used for fermentation and covered by a katsa or cheesecloth to keep it clean, and by coconut leaves to keep the temperature low as the vinegar is fermented in the fields outside the house.

According to Vie, they only use the earthen jars from Vigan called Burnay.

Burnay jars

Like the kaong tree and the alamid, the craft of making the Burnay jars is also fast disappearing.

Only the Burnay jars are the earthen jars that could be used for fermenting the Arenga vinegar.

Fermentation of the vinegar inside the Burnay jars takes three to four weeks before it is taken to the plant. At the plant, aging takes another eight weeks to the least before the vinegar is finally bottled.

“We use a roll or pilfer-proof cap to seal the bottles,” Basil said. “That’s to keep up with the international standard and to keep the quality of the vinegar.”

“We even monitor the individual samples of vinegar from each jar for microscopic and chemical analysis,” Basil said.

“We do a lot of processing to make sure that every bottle of vinegar maintains its consistent flavor and quality.”

According to Vie, unlike other vinegars, Arenga vinegar is all-natural. “There is absolutely no chemicals added to Arenga vinegar. It’s all natural and pure. Not even water is added to it.”

The vinegar comes in two blends. The first is the classic vinegar, which tastes sweet and sour, and later, the Rosemary, which is infused by rosemary herbs for a more sour taste.

Saving endangered species

Since the couple started the vinegar business, they have also taught the people of Indang the importance of the kaong tree and the alamid.

More aware now, Indang town folk have stopped killing the alamid. They have also participated in the couple’s drive to preserve the kaong trees.

Happy Earth, a local nongovernment organization, recently formed the Arenga conservation initiative.

On Feb. 8, Dr. Domingo Madulid, Botany Department head of the National Museum, and mammologist Dr. Arlene Arboledas, known for her study of the Bohol tarsiers, headed the conservation initiative with representatives from different sectors.

Since the couple put up the Arenga vinegar in market, clients from all over the country, Los Angeles and Japan have started ordering the product.

Using their frosted bottles, Vie and Basil even used the real Arenga fiber as rope tied around the neck of the bottle in the packaging of the vinegar.

“The Vinegar Man who put up a vinegar museum in South Dakota has even invited us to put the Arenga vinegar in his museum after he tasted our vinegar,” Basil said.

“It’s not just any ordinary vinegar,” Vie said.

“Although its perfect for adobo and dips, salads, and pickling, you can also drink it afterward. We use it as health drink mixed with honey. It can also be mixed with alcohol as a cocktail drink,” he added.

The vinegar business is not just a business for the couple. A part of the cost of the product is allocated to the conservation of the kaong trees in Indang and the search for places in the country where the endangered palm tree can still be found.

“When we decided to go into the Arenga vinegar business, our hopes were not entirely on the business side,” Vie said.

“We hope to maintain clean rivers, as well as to save the Arenga pinnata trees and the lives of those beautiful endangered animals that thrive in the kaong tree. And most importantly, we wanted to help the farmers’ financial well-being,” Vie added.

“Our hopes with Arenga vinegar is to make the conservation efforts in Indang successful,” Basil said.

“If we become successful in Indang, we can replicate the project all over the country.”