Showing Up for Philippine Coffee: Fat Seed at Philippine Coffee Expo 2026

This year marked The Fat Seed Cafe + Roastery’s second time joining the Philippine Coffee Expo, and somehow, it felt even bigger, louder, and more meaningful than the first.

Held at SPACE at One Ayala, Philippine Coffee Expo 2026 brought together producers, roasters, cafés, baristas, buyers, equipment partners, educators, and coffee lovers under one roof. For us, PCE has always been more than a trade show. It is one of the few spaces where the full Philippine coffee community gets to meet, taste, compete, learn, buy, sell, and actually talk to each other.

We came in as exhibitors through our own Fat Seed booth. We joined the competitions. We supported the PCQC auction. Bryant Dee joined the Roasters-Producers Forum as one of the panelists. And before the Expo even opened, Bryant had already spent ten days in Sultan Kudarat volunteering as a green grader, roaster, and cupper for the winning auction beans.

For Fat Seed, this year was a lot. In the best way.

 

More Than a Booth

Our booth became our little home base for the weekend: a place to serve coffee, meet people, reconnect with friends, and introduce more guests to what Fat Seed does.

It was very cool to receive Silver for Best Booth Design, and we’re honored to win. The booth was built not just to look good (although it did, as the award can attest), but to feel like us. It needed to have our vibe and our energy while still remaining deeply rooted in specialty coffee.

PCE is intense. There are competitions happening, people running around with cups, coffee being tasted everywhere, producers meeting buyers, roasters comparing notes, and everyone somehow operating on too much caffeine and not enough sleep. But in the middle of all that movement, our booth gave us a place to keep showing up for the people who came to see us.

Our Team in Competition

This year, Fat Seed was also represented by our team in the PCE competitions.

Pao placed 2nd Runner-Up in the Latte Art Competition, representing the skill, calm, and precision that goes into service behind the bar.

Adi, Zaira, and Red placed 1st Runner-Up in the Signature Drink Competition, showing the creativity and teamwork that happen when baristas are given space to experiment, collaborate, and tell a story through coffee.

These wins mean a lot to us because Fat Seed has been about the team. We can’t help but feel a little proud seeing our baristas step up on the competition stage and carrying the brand with confidence.

Bryant at the Roasters-Producers Forum

One of the most meaningful moments of PCE 2026 was Bryant joining the Roasters-Producers Forum as one of the panelists.

For us, this conversation matters because the future of Philippine coffee does not depend only on better roasting, better brewing, or better café experiences. It depends on stronger relationships between producers and roasters. It depends on understanding what happens at origin, how quality is built, what producers need, and how buyers can support coffee in a way that is both sustainable and respectful.

Bryant’s perspective has always been shaped by relationships. Before buying coffee, before roasting it, before serving it to customers, we try to understand the people behind it. That approach has taken us to farms, cupping tables, auction rooms, and long conversations with producers whose work we believe in.

The Work Before the Expo

Before PCE officially opened, Bryant had already spent ten days in Sultan Kudarat volunteering for the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition.

He helped as a green grader, roaster, and cupper for the winning auction beans. It was technical, exhausting, and very behind-the-scenes — the kind of work most people do not see, but the industry deeply depends on.

That work matters because competition coffees do not simply appear on a stage. They need to be received, evaluated, roasted, cupped, and prepared with care. The process gives producers a fairer chance to have their coffees represented properly and gives buyers a clearer understanding of the quality being presented.

For us, that kind of work is part of showing up for Philippine coffee. Not just when there are cameras. Not just when there are awards. But in the quiet, tiring, necessary parts too.

Supporting Producers Through the PCQC Auction

The PCQC auction has become one of the most important parts of PCE for us because it directly connects buyers with winning Philippine coffee producers.

This year, we were thrilled to win four auction lots:

Category	Winning Lot	Coffee Producer	Final Bid Price	Volume	Total Amount
Robusta Naturals	PCQC 2026 Top 1	Krystel Anne Lames	₱1,600/kg	177 kg	₱283,200
Robusta Naturals	PCQC 2026 Top 4	Metecia Wandas	₱1,500/kg	117 kg	₱175,500
Robusta Experimentals	PCQC 2026 Top 2	Jyriel Jian Ambay	₱1,550/kg	117 kg	₱181,350
Arabica	PCQC 2026 Top 9	Maynard Joseph Garces	₱1,500/kg	117 kg	₱175,500

Altogether, these lots total 528 kilograms of Philippine coffee, representing ₱815,550 in auction purchases directly supporting producers whose work we believe in.

This was our second time bidding on coffee from Krystel Anne Lames, who also won Top 1 Robusta last year. Her coffee continues to prove how exciting Philippine Robusta can be when it is grown, processed, and presented with care.

We were also especially happy to win coffee from Maynard Joseph Garces of Finca de Garces in Bukidnon. We had already visited his farm and built a relationship with him before this year’s competition, so winning one of his lots felt personal. Finca de Garces has been one of the most exciting farms to watch in Philippine coffee, not only because of its awards, but because of the way the farm approaches quality, research, processing, and long-term growth.

For us, the auction is not just about buying the “winning” coffee. It is about supporting producers we believe in, especially when we have seen their work up close.

That was also true last year with Rodyio Tacdoy. We had visited his farm before the competition, tasted his coffee, believed in his potential, and joined the bidding for his lot when it reached a historic ₱9,900 per kilo. We did not win that bid, but we were proud to be part of that moment. Half because we genuinely loved the coffee and believed in him. Half because Bryant was, frankly, bored and the auction needed some drama.

This year felt different. Better. More alive.

One of the most exciting parts of the 2026 auction was seeing every coffee in the Arabica category get bought. Compared to last year, when bidding felt slower and more hesitant, this year felt like a real shift. More buyers were engaged. More producers were seen. More coffees moved.

That matters.

Because every serious bid sends a message: Philippine coffee has value. Philippine producers deserve attention. And quality coffee should create opportunity at origin.

What We Took Home

We are incredibly grateful for the recognition Fat Seed received at PCE 2026:

Pao — 2nd Runner-Up, Latte Art Competition
Adi, Zaira, and Red — 1st Runner-Up, Signature Drink Competition
The Fat Seed — Silver, Best Booth Design

But beyond the awards, what we took home was a deeper sense of responsibility.

Philippine coffee is growing. The community is becoming more skilled, more curious, more connected, and more willing to show up for each other. The energy at PCE this year made that very clear.

For Fat Seed, being part of that growth means more than roasting and serving good coffee. It means building relationships with producers. It means investing in local lots. It means giving our team room to compete and grow. It means joining the hard conversations. It means doing the quiet work behind the scenes.

And sometimes, yes, it means spending ten days in Sultan Kudarat before immediately jumping into a three-day Expo. Again: too much. But also very Bryant.

To the Philippine Coffee Guild, the PCE organizers, the PCQC team, the producers, fellow roasters, competitors, customers, partners, and everyone who visited our booth — thank you.

This was our second Philippine Coffee Expo, but it definitely will not be our last.

We are tired. We are grateful. We are caffeinated.

And we are more excited than ever for what Philippine coffee can become.