How Good Cup Met Acu

How a message to a stranger's Facebook page led Good Cup to the first Gesha ever grown in the Philippines.

For years, growing Gesha on Mount Apo meant explaining himself to people who didn't understand why. Why leave a stable life in Taiwan. Why go somewhere remote with no family, no friends, betting on a coffee variety nobody in the Philippines had grown before.

the message

A Stranger on Facebook

In 2024, someone tasted a coffee at a friend's place. Something called Mount Apo Gesha. He asked where it came from, but his friend wouldn't say.

So he spent the next few days on Facebook, asking around, trying to find out if a farm by that name even existed. Eventually, he found a page, but it wasn't Acu's personal one. He messaged it anyway, a stranger, asking if Acu had Gesha. Acu said yes.

They kept talking through auto-translate and broken Bisaya, for days, before either of them mentioned meeting in person.

the order

Ordering Blind

The stranger bought a batch. It wasn't cheap. He asked for photos of the trees, then ran them through ChatGPT to check. It wasn't conclusive.

He brought it to two other people at Good Cup, Gio and Ed, who weren't convinced either. It could be seedlings bought abroad and repackaged as Philippine coffee. It might not be Gesha at all.

The stranger, also known as Xandro, head roaster of Good Cup, ordered anyway.

the proof

Confirming the Gesha

A few days later, the package arrived at the Good Cup shop in Cebu. Carlos Escobar happened to be there, third place at the 2025 World Brewers Cup and a third-generation Colombian coffee farmer, training with the team at the time.

Xandro handed him the coffee first. He looked it over, smelled it, and took his time. "Yes, this is Gesha," he said. The next day, they tasted it together and agreed.

meeting in person

From Cebu to Davao

A week later, Acu was passing through Cebu and stopped at the Good Cup coffee shop. Xandro wasn't even there. Acu met Gio and the rest of the team first before he'd met the one person who'd made the call.

Not long after, an order came in: about 30 kilos, from a farm producing somewhere around 200 to 250 kilos a year. Then Xandro made the trip to Davao himself, to see the trees. That was the first time Acu and Xandro actually met.

They spent the visit drinking beer, talking about everything except coffee.

the cupping

Nobody Knew Who He Was

Then came an invitation: a cupping event in Davao, on Xandro's birthday. Nobody at that party knew who Acu was.

He stood near the table while the room tasted through coffees from Colombia and Panama, some of which were from La Esperanza and La Esmeralda, two of the most recognized coffee estates in the world. Nobody in the room knew his.

His coffee was poured last. It was the room's favorite.

the reveal

Pointing at Acu

Xandro let people enjoy it before he told them what it was: the first Philippine Gesha. Then he told the room who grew it, and pointed at Acu, standing right there.

Acu didn't say much at first. Only to Xandro. Then he told the room his story, thanked everyone there, and went home that night no longer anonymous in a specialty coffee scene he'd spent years trying to reach.

full circle

Back to Panama

Word of that night reached further than Davao. At World of Coffee in Bangkok, Wilford Lamastus Jr. tasted what had grown from those seeds. Acu's original seedlings came from Elida Estate in Panama, part of the Lamastus family's estates and one of Gesha coffee's most decorated names. This year, Elida took first place in the Gesha Washed category at Best of Panama.

I always knew it. My coffee can give me happiness.

That belief in his coffee wasn't new. Hairdressing, interior design, a mobile phone shop, real estate. Four different lines of work, and the same self-trust running through all of them.

"Each time, I was able to reach the top."

Acu, on the belief that got him here