Agnep Heritage Coffee

22/04/2026

Sample roast day on the IKAWA . Three lots from this harvest, each processed differently, each asking a different question about what Balili’s soil is capable of.

The Typica and Red Bourbon washed lot came through —stewed stone fruits, a bergamot, and Earl Grey quality in the finish that we’ve learned to watch for. Washed processing at its most honest: nothing to hide behind, just the bean and the place.

The Orange Bourbon anaerobic had notes of wild berries, Fuji apple, raisins — the fruit character this varietal carries under anaerobic fermentation came through.

The Catimor anaerobic continues to surprise people who come in with assumptions about the varietal. Lemon and lime acidity, caramel sweetness, a grapefruit bitterness that keeps it interesting, and a caramel and dark cherry aroma that hits before the first sip. At this altitude with this processing approach, it holds its own.

21/04/2026

After drying, every lot we produce rests in parchment inside our reposo hut in Balili before it moves to the next stage of processing.

A study published in Roast Magazine this year found that coffee given a proper rest period in a cool, stable environment retained its sweetness and acidity for up to 24 months, without the papery flavors that usually signal aging. The researchers found that lower temperatures slow the metabolic and oxidative reactions that cause green coffee to decline.

Our reposo hut in Balili sits at 1,620 meters above sea level — not the extreme altitude of the study’s El Alto at 4,100 meters, but well within the range where cooler temperatures and moderately reduced oxygen levels slow the reactions that cause green coffee to age. We stay at 20 degrees Celsius and below year-round, monitor water activity starting at four weeks, and only move the coffee once it reaches 0.55. The mountain environment is doing some of the work. We just make sure we don’t rush past it. (Second photo is 2024 harvest )

20/04/2026

A study published in Roast Magazine’s May/June 2026 issue found that green coffee rested at high altitude aged significantly more slowly than coffee stored at lower elevations. The research compared two lots from the same Bolivian farm and harvest — one given a reposo at El Alto (4,100 masl) before export, one shipped immediately — and tracked both over two years.

At that altitude, barometric pressure is roughly 60 to 65 percent of sea level, meaning approximately 35 to 40 percent less oxygen is available for chemical and biological reactions.  The reposo lots retained higher moisture stability, showed slower color change (a marker of oxidative aging), and most importantly, still presented with clear malic acidity and a surprisingly defined caramel sweetness at 24 months, without the papery or woody off-flavors that typically signal advanced age. 

The researchers conclude that controlling the metabolism of green coffee is a practical, cost-effective way to extend shelf life and maintain the flavor quality of the resulting roasted coffee  — without freezing or energy-intensive infrastructure.

For Agnep, this is directly relevant. Our reposo hut at 1,620 masl is already doing what this research describes, and the science now gives us a specific way to explain that to roasters who want to understand our post-harvest approach.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Read Farmer Edmund

← Issue 135: May | June 2026

20/04/2026

When you buy roasted coffee beans, you know exactly what you’re getting. DTI reached out to us for a product analysis, so last year , we had our Orange Bourbon varietal tested by DOST’s Regional Standards and Testing Laboratory here in the Cordillera. The results are straightforward: 14.38% crude protein, 8.22% crude fat, 70.31% carbohydrates, 4.91% moisture, and 421 kcal per 100g — all naturally occurring in the bean, nothing added.

20/04/2026

This harvest came in at a quarter of last year’s yield. Not enough to supply our regular roasters, which is a hard conversation to have with people who have been loyal to the farm.

Weather, the unpredictability of a young farm, the reality that farming at 1,620 meters means the mountain decides more than we do some years. We document, we adjust, and we wait for the next season.

What we’re grateful for this week is that The Good Cup took the entire nano batch of Typica + Red bourbon , Catimor and Orange bourbon , cascara and peaberries included. When a roaster purchases a lot this small without hesitation, that means something beyond the transaction.

18/04/2026

Mimi and Rica picked these cherries from our Typica trees in Balili. They sorted them at the long table by the window, the same window that looks out at the forest they came from. The dry fermentation was monitored carefully, Brix and pH checked through each stage until the numbers said it was ready. They managed the drying and sorting after that.

And now they are the ones pouring the water, brewing the same lot they helped produce from the beginning.

Most coffee drinkers will never meet the person who grew what is in their cup. On this farm, the people who grew it are also the ones who can tell you exactly what happened between the tree and this pour.

17/04/2026

The name Agnep echoes the Ilocano word for mist, angép. She planted her first coffee trees here in Mankayan in 1906. Over a hundred years later, we’re still farming in the same cloud, at 1,620 meters, where the fog rolls in most afternoons and clears by nightfall.

14/04/2026

Fermentation is where most of the decisions that matter actually get made. Too short and the sugars don’t break down completely. Too long and acidity tips into something unpleasant. We check Brix and pH throughout because gut feel isn’t enough when you’ve spent three years waiting for a tree to bear fruit worth processing carefully. The milk tea and bergamot notes our buyers describe come from getting this part right, consistently, lot after lot.

09/04/2026

Edmon knew this soil before we did. When we started in 2018, our family brought the research and the seedlings and the investment. He brought everything else ….how this particular slope drains after rain, which trees were already bearing, how the Benguet cold affects timing in ways no textbook quite captures. Five harvests in, the farm runs on that combination. The science we brought and the knowledge he already had.

07/04/2026

When we co-founded Kabatangan Coffee Growers in 2023, the question we kept coming back to was what it would actually mean for neighboring farmers to benefit from what we had learned, not just in theory but in practice. Over 3,000 trees planted in addition to their existing trees . Training passed along on planting, and post- harvest . The goal was never to be the only farm in Balili producing coffee worth buying. A region with one good farm is a story. A region with many is a reputation.

04/04/2026

This is what happens after the harvest. After the picking and the pulping and the fermentation and the drying.

Someone still has to sit down and go through every single bean by hand.
Our sorters work through rows of green coffee under morning light, removing anything that shouldn’t be in the cup …. defects or beans that didn’t develop right, anything that would compromise a roaster’s lot. It takes patience the industry rarely photographs because it doesn’t look dramatic. Just hands, beans, and the kind of attention that separates a consistent lot from an inconsistent one.

The forest outside the window is the same forest where these cherries were picked. They traveled maybe 200 meters to get to this table. Every step between that tree and your cup has someone’s hands and judgment in it.
That’s what specialty coffee actually is, when you take the marketing away. People paying close attention at every stage, because the coffee is worth it.

🌿 Balili, Mankayan, Benguet · 1,620 masl

01/04/2026

The flavor notes our buyers describe most often are passion fruit , bergamot, raisin, tomato and orange . We didn’t engineer those. They come from the elevation, the volcanic soil, the shade canopy, and the slow ripening that happens when cherries grow at 1,620 meters with Benguet pine and alnus trees for company. The cold slows everything down, and slow is where complexity comes from. Terroir is a French word but the concept belongs to every mountain that has ever grown food worth tasting. Ours just happens to be in Balili.