Images from Yesterday's Fund-Raising Event

It was a halo-halo fiesta!

* I really just spent most of the day behind the bar. And I bought some items in the rummage sale before everyone came. We heard Gabes perform inside Arla from the cafe and there were a bunch of activities after the mini concert. It was a very eventful day. I think there was even a wedding ceremony after the fund-raiser. Then a birthday dinner celebration to end the evening. 

* We thank God for a very successful event. And it didn't rain that hard! Whew! The cafe donated 10% of its total sales at the end of the day. We hope it would help in raising funds for RJ's medical expenses. To God be the glory!

A "Halo-Halo" Fund-Raising Event for RJ Betia

(L-R: Tita Erly, RJ, and Kuya Popo)

Our friend, 5-year old RJ, is battling acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL. This is our third fund-raising event, together with Arla Diner, to support his medical needs. The first one was in November 11, the other one was during our Fourth Anniversary last April 14. On Saturday, we will give 10% of our gross sales to RJ and his family. Aside from this you can also buy a ticket and participate in the activities listed below.

For every P200 purchase of the ticket, you take part in:

• contributing to RJ's medical expenses
• receiving a delicious cup of halo-halo
* participating in buying imported goods at very low price/s
• learning Baybayin or sinaunang wika ng mga Filipino
• receiving an entrance ticket to the fundraising miniconcert with music by Gabes Torres

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us" - Ephesians 3:20

Join us on the 26th! Follow this link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/304767889602781/

Your Coffee Journey Starts Here

* Yesterday, we conducted our very first Basic Barista Workshop at Cafe Antonio. It was a one-on-one session with participant, Teri Ulat from Los Banos. In the workshop, she learned about the role of the barista in the coffee industry, the parts of the espresso machine, and she had lots of time practicing pulling shots of espresso and steaming milk. We figured that having one or two participants for a three-hour session is the ideal class size because each session can be more personalized according to your needs. As for Teri, she wanted to learn to prepare espresso and know the differences between a latte and a cappuccino and an americano from brewed coffee. 

* We plan to conduct more workshops during the school year so that those who were interested to join but couldn't make it this summer would have another chance to take the workshops. We highly recommend that you take the Coffee Appreciation Workshop first before taking the Basic Barista Workshop, this way you can really appreciate the things we will practice in the barista workshop. But if you feel you want to get your barista skills going, you can join our Basic Barista Workshop. It's a good platform to pursue higher learning in coffee in other coffee education programs aside from what Cafe Antonio offers. Our workshop is so concise, you will be able to pour a latte in 3 hours!

* Discovering and learning about good coffee is a fun journey. We encourage you to start making baby steps or, if you want, have a huge leap of faith and start your journey right now. It doesn't matter if you're a home barista, a professional barista, a coffee addict, or a coffee entrepreneur, we're here to share to you what we've learned in our own coffee journey!

Shuttle Service Schedule

* Now you don't have to worry about going home from Cafe Antonio Coffee or Arla Diner! Our orange multicab, OJ, will shuttle you to Vega Center starting today. Here's the shuttle schedule:

First Trip: 5:00 pm

Last Trip: 10:00 pm

Suggested Donation: Php 5.00

It's Wearing a Cool Tea-Shirt!

* Try Arizona Iced Tea's Blueberry White Tea here at Cafe Antonio Coffee. I was wondering how it tasted so I opened a bottle to sample it first. I liked it, our volunteer, Mixi, liked it, and the kids here also liked it. So I hope you guys like it too. We still have a bottle of the Green Tea with Honey and Ginseng. FYI, you can take home the bottles. It's pretty. You can use it as a vase or whatever. Checkout their Facebook page. They actually look for artists to design their cans and bottles.

ARIZONA ICED TEA: https://www.facebook.com/AriZonaIcedTea

The Snack Bar is Now Open!

* We've noticed watching movies and surfing the net has been the norm here for the past few days since the Arla compound became a WiFi hotspot. So we decided to put a mini snack bar with cookies and chips for sale together with our bakers' pastries. More treats for you to munch on while waiting for the blistering Los Banos heat to subside! 

* We're also thinking of serving prepared sandwiches for light lunches and quick meals on-the-go. Maybe in June they'll be ready.

Share the Knowledge! Workshops Start Next Week

* It's the middle of the month and once again, it's time to pay the bills! But that shouldn't be reason to get us down. I know every entrepreneur shares the same sentiments. Instead, let's release our inner Optimist Prime and get some activities going! 

* We certainly enjoyed April's coffee appreciation workshops so we're here again to offer another set of workshops to further educate our little town about coffee. It's part of our mission to develop discriminating tastes from our customers so that they could evaluate...

COMMERCIAL BREAK: Daniel and Clancy Noriega just came and gave me a manual brewer from Vietnam. We experimented how to make iced Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk. I guess we failed.

...so that the could evaluate our coffee and criticize it and do the same to the other coffee places they go to. 

This May we're having a new workshop called the Basic Barista Workshop. It's an introduction to our profession and how we make coffee in our shop. The good part here is that the student will learn and understand the basics of what a barista does and actually try and practice with our espresso machine! Who knows, maybe one day they'll have a cafe of their own and maybe become a barista somewhere. Learning about coffee is fun even though coffee is such a complex beverage. We all have to start somewhere. Let's start here, with what we have. Enroll now! You can pay on the day of the workshop.

Here are the dates:

May 17 (Thursday) Coffee Appreciation Workshop, 1 - 4 pm

May 18 (Friday) Coffee Appreciation Workshop, 1 - 4 pm

May 19 (Saturday) Basic Barista Workshop, 1 - 4 pm

Text me for more details and inquiries like how to get here and where in the world is Brgy. Maahas.

Caught on Film

photo by Ja Fernandez

photo by Ja Fernandez

* These cool photos were taken by our photographer friend, Ja Fernandez of the UP Photographers' Society.

Cofi for WiFi

* The Arla Compound is now a Wi-Fi hotspot! You can ask the barista about the password after you order.

New Owl on the Block

It's not exactly a new beverage. It's just a Black Forest Frothiccino with a couple of shots of our Owltonio Blend Coffee. You can also try our other coffee blends with the Black Forest. But so far, the Owltonio goes best with the dark chocolate and cherry. Try it!