Plain good coffee blends

Coffee completes a person's day — at least for the 80 percent of Filipino adults who consume 2.5 cups of coffee per day. Coffee shop businesses are in fact booming in the country.

The Philippines is among the few countries that produce commercially-viable coffee: Arabica, Liberica (Barako), Excelsa, and Robusta.

With millions of Filipinos loving their daily caffeine fix, Sean Lee, the founder of the budding coffee business Plain Sight Coffee, decided to turn his to-go drink into a business.

Starting in 2016 with a small coffee roaster the size of a microwave, Lee roasted coffee in his mother's kitchen to supply homes and small coffee shops. "From there, I got out of my mom's kitchen and into my mom's garage," he recalls.

The growth of his coffee business was anchored on a simple aim: that coffee shouldn't be complicated.

The shop recently launched the Plain Sight Blend Box, a collection of four coffee blends: the bestsellers Weekender and Trooper, and the newest blends Bonfire and Dayglow.

Weekender offers a delicate blend of Latin American sweetness and acidity. Trooper, meanwhile, highlights the best of Brazilian coffee
— chocolatey and nutty with just the right amount of body.

The Bonfire coffee roast is a good introduction for new caffeine lovers — a rich-bodied coffee with notes of toast, roasted cacao nibs, and oats. Dayglow is a combination of fruity Brazil and fully washed Yirgacheffe, offering hints of dark chocolate, roasted almonds, and cherries.

"Coffee is fuel. It fuels our creativity, our energy," said Lee. And so it has for his growing Plain Sight Coffee.