Filipino Coffee Shops Are Pushing Fun Little Coffee Drinks Forward

"Yes, Ayala Coffee has ube drinks: At this point, they're as essential to a Filipino coffee shop as cà phê sữa đá - or Vietnamese iced coffee - is to a Vietnamese one. The Union, New Jersey coffee shop gets more niche with its inspiration. There are frothy Americanos enhanced with calamansi, espresso tonics with a touch of tamarind, cold brew enriched with Milo (as in the powdered chocolate drink mix) syrup, and lattes in playful flavors: pandan, cassava cake, leche flan, and jasmine, the Philippines' national flower."

"Owners Trixie Jose and Matthew Reyes, who opened Ayala late last year, wanted to create a space in Union, where Jose grew up, for a younger generation of Filipinos. Nearby, "there are four or five other Filipino restaurants - mom and pops, super traditional," Jose says. But those spaces tend to be full of people her parents' age or older; Jose is 32, Reyes is 34. "We wanted to create a third space for people like us," she says."

"Ayala is part of a growing niche of Filipino coffee shops, joining establishments like Baby's Kusina + Market in Philadelphia, Side Practice Coffee in Chicago, Kalesa in Portland, Oregon, Obet & Del's in Los Angeles, and Teofilo Coffee in Carson, California. Even Lasita, the Filipino rotisserie chicken restaurant in Los Angeles, has launched a weekend cafe concept called Kapé Lasita, which serves drinks like a "langka-ppucino," featuring jackfruit, or langka in Tagalog. Across the country, Filipino coffee shops have been picking up steam, capitalizing on consumers' appetite for more interesting and complicated specialty drinks, as well"

Filipino coffee shops across the U.S. are blending traditional Filipino flavors with specialty-coffee techniques, offering drinks such as ube lattes, calamansi-enhanced Americanos, tamarind espresso tonics, Milo cold brew, and jackfruit "langka-ppucinos." Owners like Trixie Jose and Matthew Reyes aim to create youth-oriented, community "third spaces" in neighborhoods with more traditional Filipino establishments. These cafes include locations from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and Portland to Chicago, and they leverage consumers' appetite for inventive, complex drinks while elevating Filipino ingredients and lesser-known Philippine coffee beans.

Read at Eater