Edward Basse will be a familiar name on this blog in the coming weeks as he offers dispatches from the Philippines, where he’ll be based for the next few months. We caught up with him before he left at Seattle’s historic Panama Hotel Tea & Coffee House.

Greetings from the Biz Dev team! Kalsada aims to be a Philippine coffee supplier that uses coffee as a tool for community development, and since Kalsada’s launch in March, our team of coffee aficionados has been thoughtfully planning our journey to brewing that first cup of coffee for you.

Everyone has an opinion about coffee. At Kalsada, we love to drink it, and we most certainly love to talk about it.  If you buy your coffee in the grocery store, the label may tell you that your coffee is 100% Arabica or that it was bought from a farmer who is organic or fair-trade certified.  However, these labels only give us a glimpse at the rich history behind each bean.