May 16, 2006

Bo's Coffee Club

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Bo's Coffee Club to create own brand
By Ehda M. Dagooc
The Freeman 05/15/2006

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/Freeman200605152001.htm

Cebuano-owned Bo's Coffee Club is going to create its own brand of coffee bean product to further push the Philippine coffee beans in the world.

"We will be developing a Bo's Coffee Bean brand in the next few months. We are going to push for stronger branding strategy in order to also promote our own Philippine coffee," said Bo's Coffee Club president Steve Benitez.

This means that the close to 30 Bo's Coffee outlets in the Philippines will soon be offering a Bo's Coffee Bean product that will be sourced out directly from farmers across the country.

"This will encourage Filipinos to brew Philippine-harvested coffee bean, and help farmers increase their livelihood," Benitez said.

The availability of Philippine coffee bean that will be pushed by Bo's Coffee Club chain will also encourage farmers to plant more coffee, and make the prices more attractive to them, eliminating the middlemen cost of distribution," Benitez said.

Bo's will be creating a new team to directly partner with coffee farmers in the Philippines to push the Filipino coffee produce, he added.

In the past, the Philippines is one of the top coffee bean suppliers in the world. Because of weak promotional support, the coffee farming industry in the Philippines became a dying industry, thus most coffee farms were converted for other agricultural purposes.

Benitez said because of the tremendous growth of coffee bean demand in recent years, the Philippines, instead of sourcing its own coffee products, is forced to export coffee beans to other countries.

"We have one of the best coffees in the world. We should help revive this position," he added.

Today, the Philippines is demanding at least 55,000 tons of coffee bean annually. The country's coffee farmers can only produce a little over 22,000 tons every year.

"We should create a way to make the coffee farming more profitable and feasible for the farmers. We will make the prices attractive to them to encourage them to increase their coffee produce," he said.

According to Benitez, just like any imported coffee bean that is mostly patronized by Filipinos, soon the Philippine Coffee brand, initially promoted by Bo's Coffee will take the center stage and is expected to make waves in the worldwide market.

But first he said, Bo's is committed to make the Philippine Coffee Bean brand strong in its home-ground, that will also get the attention of the visiting foreign tourists to take home a Philippine Coffee bean product.

Dubbed as 'Moving the Beans-Filipino Beans," through this effort, Bo's is undertaking a much braver move, to (once again) compete with the international coffee bean brands, which are sold expensively in the Philippine market.

There are different kinds of Coffee bean in the Philippines, these are the Arabica, Cape Barako, Robusta, among others. Benitez said these are all of more competitive quality that those coming from other countries.
May 15, 2006

Belated Happy Birthday, Jon

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Dear Me,

I am such a bad friend.
I forgot to greet a good friend a very
Happy Birthday last week.

Actually, I remembered his birthday 2-3 days before.
I told myself that I will greet him on the day itself.
Unfortunately, I forgot.

I am really sorry that I did.

I hope it isn't too late yet to greet you.
Allow me to share this with you.
It's a poem by
Susan Polis Schutz.


To My Dear Friend JON,
on Your Birthday,
I Have So Many Wishes for You


I wish for you to have
people to love
people in your life who will care about you
as much as I do

blue skies and clear days
exciting things to do
easy solutions to any problems
knowledge to make the right decisions
strength in your values
laughter and fun
goals to pursue
happiness in all that you do

My friend
I wish for you to have
beautiful experiences
each new day
as you follow
your dreams
May 14, 2006

Dear Mom

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You have carried me inside you for nine months and I wonder how you were able to get through day by day. I was such a heavy load and you still kept on caring for me.

You and I may not always be speaking on the same wavelengths but just the same, you are one of the most special people in my life.

To make our family live in comfort, you help my father to make both ends meet by working your butt off, too. Despite that, you still manage to run the household fairly and keep the family intact. How you do that remains a puzzle to me.

When me and my siblings were a little younger, you used to rant how 'magastos' we were and that we don't know the value of money earned from a hard day's toil. We even call you 'kuripot' and you would launch into a diatribe of where the money goes and how life can be so hard. But you are the person to lavish us with dresses and toys unexpectedly. You are the one who brings us to the mall and let us pick up the things we like.

You are our wonder mom who wakes up early in the morning just to serve breakfast and prepare a healthy 'baon' for us to school. From an exhausting day at work, you will go home and make sure that dinner is prepared when we arrive.

You always get so mad with me for going home so late at night that at times we argue because I always tell you that I am already a grown-up. You will get madder because my reasoning irritates you and we would end up hurting over the battle of words. But still, you will check me out in my room and ask me if I have filled in my stomach already. I may be hurt and mad, too but deep in this stubborn head of mine, you love me and that you always want me to be safe from the threats of this world.

When we argue and I start to reason out, you will ask me if UP teaches people how to be rude and obstinate. When your friends and colleagues voice out their high regard for me, you will boast that UP has developed me and I greatly enhanced myself in it. Like other moms, you are proud to say that I schooled in UP.

I love you for being just the way you are. Simple, thoughtful, sweet and with a big heart. It does not bother me a bit whenever you let out that never-ending, ticklish guffaw of yours everytime you watch something hilarious. I also even bawl with you (which is unknown to you) whenever we both watch 'Maalaala Mo Kaya.'

It still makes me shed tears everytime I remember how hard life is for you when you were a kid and growing up. An orphan at nine and with a life shifting to one relative to another, it still hurts me to know that you went through life's hardships alone. (Now, you are making me cry again). So, when you had me and my siblings, you always make sure that life will treat us alright. You never fail to show us how you value us, always putting our best interests at heart. Sometimes, I can feel that you are feeling tired from doing it all but you never complain. You are so strong and I admire you for that.

You may never hear me say "I love you" but in my heart and mind, I always utter those 3 deep, meaningful words. I have lost count the number of times I have broken your heart and for that I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you, Mom.

You and I may have a lot of differences but one thing I know and which I want to tell the whole world is that I am proud to have you for a mother and I thank God that He gave you to me.

Happy Mother's Day.

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