It's June, Welcome Back Students!

We have a lot of things prepared for you guys this June...

Starting June 9, we will be selling Bibingkinitan Freshly Baked Mini Bibingkas (http://www.bibingkinitan.com) for 25 pesos each. So watch out for it when classes start next week. It goes great with coffee and the gloomy weather that's been bothering us these past few days.


On Monday (tomorrow, June 1), we will be launching our SUGAR FREE FROTHICCINOS available in Mocha (Php 85), Black Forest (95), Choco Peppermint (115), Cookies and Cream (115), and Choco Macadamia (125) flavors. All thanks to our newly supplied Torani Sugar Free Chocolate Sauce!


Also available for June is our FoM, the PBJ (Peanut Butter and Jelly) FRAJELLI. This is our first and only Frajelli FoM. It has coffee jelly, peanut butter syrup and chocolate, blended with strawberry syrup and topped with a dollop of whipped cream, crushed nuts, caramel sauce, and more coffee jelly! Absolutely delightful for fans of the classic PBJ sandwich. Only 130 pesos. Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/cafeantonioelbi.

FoM for June: PBJ Frajelli

Cafe Antonio's fist Frajelli FoM with whipped cream! Only 130 pesos!

Starring: Chino Santos
Directed By Jabez Flores
Music: I Don't Love Anyone by Belle and Sebastian

This video was shot yesterday afternoon. We had no electricity at our apartment and it was getting dark fast, that's why the video's a bit dim. After shooting the video, we ate the PBJ sandwiches, hehe. Congrats to Chino for his amazing acting skills.

Gifts Along the Way

Photo (right): The new facade of Cafe Antonio - Dumaguete, more power guys!

"Inquire re tech support." That's what my cellphone reminders told me to do last Friday. And I read it again this morning after waking up from a monster 4-movie marathon that ended early in the morning. Tech support for our espresso machine has been my concern for the past year. Although our machine had been dependable for the past year, crazy things are always bound to happen in the most important moments. A broken espresso machine in a cafe is the equivalent of a passionate man losing the desire to go on with life. That may be too dramatic, but you get the picture. No espresso machine, no cafe. It's that simple.

The thought of our machine breaking down haunted me until someone by the name of Tita Glo texted me. The message went something like this, "Jabez, i have a coffee machine here, someone gave it to us, but it's too sophisticated, and I already have a coffeemaker, maybe you can use it at the cafe." -- Something like that. Machine. Sophisticated. Coffeemaker. Those three words were all I needed, I thought, "that must be a fully-automatic home espresso machine!" So I told her that I'll drop by right at that moment to get it. Yes, I was right, it was a small fully-automatic espresso machine, it's 120 v but what the heck! Finally, a backup espresso machine, waaah! It was an anwered prayer even before praying or thinking of praying about it! All of us were so happy, it looked beautiful, and it was well appreciated. The Cafe Antonio family would like to thank Tita Glo and Tito Gene Veruasa for the gift, God bless you!

Okay, now that's over, we've already put it on top of our counter (display lang muna), I'm here at Koinonia thinking of new stuff for the school year. We already have a lot of surprises in store for you and I won't spill any of it right now. June and July is already planned out, I hope we would execute well.

Right now, I'm making We Satisifi with No Wifi-themed stickers. It's sorta our ad campaign right now. It's not that we hate WiFi (our ads and promotional tools are all based online, and I'm almost always online), we just don't want people to rely THAT much on the Internet to find a good time. And we don't want the WiFi to overshadow our coffee, cause that's what it's all about. The coffee, the espresso, and the public living room atmosphere of Canton, it's all too precious.

That's it for now, keep on supporting us and we'll always do our best to serve you guys. Let's go, have fun!

Cafe Antonio Zambales Jumbo Roadtrip w/ Cheese '09

With Jabez & Joyce; Canton staff, Manong Retz, Kuya Ramhil, Bessy & Ate Marisse; friends, Chino, Ged, Zadl, Beni, Jomar, Joyceanne, Jeg, and July.

Baristas are We

Twenty five to thirty seconds. That's all the time we need to make an espresso.

The flow is too slow. We check the filters, the screens. All clean. We adjust the grinder.

Too fast this time. A few more tries. Just can't get it right.

"Taka-takataka-tak," goes the dosing lever. We pull more shots. The flow is still too fast.

We studied our manuals. We checked our grounds. We checked the espresso machine. We checked the weather. And we checked our tamping.

After two hundred and fifty grams of beans spent on figuring out the right setting and doing the correct procedure, we finally got it: 30 ml in 30 seconds. That's the best we could do.

Neil, Bessy, Ramhil, and I have intense moments like these at the bar. We have to take care of our core product and the heart of every coffee-based drink in the cafe: the espresso. This small drink is the heart of everything. It separates one cafe from another, the quality of the espresso.

Pulling a shot of espresso looks easy when you're watching a barista. But it really involves a lot of science to pull a perfect shot.

A few of you might have noticed it, but the quality of our espresso-based drinks have come a long way since our 1st year. Minus the muscovado sugar and the Splenda, you'll notice that the marital ties that bond milk and coffee in your lattes and cappuccinos have gotten stronger.

Sometimes it's very tempting to neglect the espresso, especially if your best sellers are ice blended drinks. Right now we have an online store that we're maintaining; we have just released our best-selling non-coffee based drink yet, the Blue Crush; and we keep playing and experimenting with our monthly FoMs. When business is going well with these on hand, sometimes there's this temptation to stray away from the very foundation of the business: the coffee itself, in its purest form.

I have learned my craft from the best people I know and I'm not about to let them down. I pass my knowledge to my baristas and train them well so that they too will share the same passion for coffee. Because every good shot of espresso pulled is a victory for coffee.

== o ==

Cafe Antonio remains a mystery. Up to now, and I have been mentioning this on our blogs for over a year now, we are still amaaazed at how Elbi people are supporting us. It's already summer, and people are still packing the cafe! God has truly been gracious to us. Sometimes with success, we tend to get big heads and believe in ourselves too much. We rely too much on what we can do, what we have achieved, and what we have accomplished. And then you'll say, "Ang galing ko talaga!"

We have those moments, to be honest, but we knock our heads and remind ourselves that this is not our own doing. Call it lucky, call it blessed, but its undeniable that God is the foundation of this cafe. This business we have is a leap of faith. We took a very very huge risk. We didn't plan this. Cafe Antonio - LB was not on our itinerary. God just pieced everything together and made it work. He then chose us to run it and we're doing our best to run it exceptionally well and not screw up.

Our barista training, our love for the job, and our desire to serve people with the best coffee possible, it's all part of doing the best we can for a job that God entrusted us to do.

"Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you." (Psalm 23:4-5, NLT)

New Pastries from Yummings Pastries

Cinnamon Rolls (20 pesos each)



Oreo Cheesecake (35 pesos)



For bulk orders, visit http://yummings.multiply.com or text 09175007607 or 09176274037.