A red wooden ball falls, catches on the shallow wooden basin of the kendama and wobbles for a second before coming to a stop. Migs Santiago, a communications technology management senior, flicks the ball into the air and catches it on the other side of the wooden toy. “Tell me if there’s a rush ha. I’ll be on register,” he says to barista and information design senior Isai Araneta, who is on a laptop. She nods as a Curtis Mayfield song plays on the speakers.

It’s a normal day for The Barista Box team. After making their rounds in food bazaars and other events in the city, the group settled along the Red Brick Road last September with their modest brown truck. Although their presence has become a fixture on campus, the team seems to be brewing up more than just the average cup of joe.

Sowing seeds

NEW HABITS. For a number of Ateneans, stopping by Barista Box for their quick caffeine fix is a must [Photos by Isabella Olivares]

Eventually, Santiago saw that there was a market in the Loyola Schools for this breed of hands-on brew. Along with Reanne Co, Nico Gomez and Jared Formalejo (who has since left The Barista Box), he entered into the School of Management Business Accelerator program, an avenue for students to run their own businesses. The team quietly set up shop along Red Brick Road last semester and has been serving the Ateneo community ever since.

It wasn’t always about the coffee; Santiago confesses that, initially, he wanted to become a chef. Unfortunately, “I didn’t know how to cook; like I [was] not good at cooking.” Instead, he tried his hand at serving as a barista: He attended a workshop held by Philippine Barista & Coffee Academy, a well-established local training institute, then went on to work part-time at cafes like Craft Coffee Revolution, The Curator and Yardstick.

“In my Craft days, I would spend 14 hours on bar, and would [make] anywhere between like eight and 15 cups of coffee, just trying out new things, like latte art and practicing and practicing,” he shares. “That’s pretty much the life of a barista in the Third Wave. We have a lot of room to experiment and play around with our coffee.”

This do-it-yourself approach to making coffee is characteristic of what is called Third Wave coffee. In a nutshell, Third Wave has to do with the artisanal process, treating the production of blends and brews as an entire craft to be appreciated.

The case of cafés

The seating arrangement at The Barista Box more closely resembles a bar than a cafe. Stools, of which there are only a few, line the sides of the truck, placing customers with a clear view of the baristas making their coffee inside. The set-up is a far cry from the cozy chairs and dim lighting of most cafes. That hasn’t stopped people from hanging out at the truck all day, though, taking in the fine aroma of good coffee and chatting with their friends and the baristas.

But the friendly coffeehouses of today are a far cry from how they started. Controversy has followed the coffeehouse closely across the world and throughout history. From Istanbul to London, the coffeehouse was always a place where people could congregate and engage in lively political discussion; the coffeehouse used to be the place for the more renegade elements of society to come together. These meetings tended to draw the ire of many a political leader. King Charles II of England famously tried to ban coffeehouses because political activists frequented them so much.

Since then, we’ve gotten Starbucks, the huge café franchise that has made coffeehouses a fixture in practically every commercial area. Coffeehouses have, in time, become the go-to place for pretty much everyone.

The evolution of the coffeehouse from underground rendezvous points for the politically minded to friendlier hang-out spots for friends and colleagues has been based on people’s collective love for coffee. Coffee drinking has always been something that most people view as a social activity and The Barista Box is putting together a fairly diverse community drawn to their artisanal blends. From folk bands to legendary professors, everyone with an interest in good coffee is stopping by and leaving their mark on the truck. “The best time is when Sir Calasanz comes here and just changes people’s lives,” Araneta shares.

Cups, conversations

One of the walls on the inside of the truck is adorned with scrawled handwritten inside jokes, like their count for the number of times they’ve appeared on the popular Facebook page ADMU Crushes (three). The 11 baristas of The Barista Box compose a colorful cast of characters: Monch Santiago is a hulking member of the Judo team; Araneta is a talented graphic designer. But all of them share a deep love for good coffee, and in their pursuit of their passion, they have accumulated a wealth of stories about their customers and friends. “I decided to become a barista since I was already a coffee enthusiast and wanted to take this interest to another level,” recalls Chi Punzalan, an applied physics with applied computer systems supersenior.

When asked about some of their favorite moments, Matt San Pedro, an information technology entrepreneurship sophomore, announces nonchalantly, “Third nipple.” The baristas erupt into laughter and no one explains further. Each of the baristas gets a chance to put a playlist of their own on the speakers at the truck. Everything from Ogie Alcasid to hipster folk tunes plays, depending on who’s making coffee—and every song is just another way the baristas try to show their personalities. It is this willingness to make friends and no small amount of skill at making coffee that is endearing The Barista Box to all those who chance upon it. “At one point, we had a hater prof,” Santiago recounts. “He said we were doing things wrong and we’d never sell, but now we’re at the top of the sales chart and he’s a regular.”

Of course, for people who aren’t as crazy for coffee, the whole thing can be strange at first: The prices may seem too high, the servings too small, the taste unlike the Frappuccinos they’ve grown accustomed to. The team can’t be perfect yet either, when it comes to the way it serves its craft. “I remember times when the coffee wasn’t hot enough, or when it turned sour. I think it’s just a question of being attentive to making sure of the quality of the coffee,” shares Eduardo Calasanz, an assistant professor from the Philosophy Department and a regular of The Barista Box.

Long shots

By nightfall, the brick road is cleared of its usual stream of people. Aside from the occasional passerby, all seems to be at peace—except for The Barista Box. If they aren’t serving a brew to a dedicated regular before 7:30 PM, then they’re either chatting away notable stories of the day or cleaning up the truck’s equipment. And of course there’s some ambient music.

There’s something unassuming to the whole thing: For all the hard work its baristas put into the business, what still seems to be more important is the connections they make with the everyday Atenean. People come and go all the time, but the truck and the memories built around it remain.

As the team was packing up to finally call it a day, Santiago waved at a student passing by. “Have a great weekend!” he called, while the student, who obviously didn’t know him, smiled and waved back. It may be a long shot, but perhaps The Barista Box has made its place here in the Ateneo—strongly and smoothly, just like a cup of coffee.

*Editor’s Note: Chi D. Punzalan is a member of the Photos Staff of The GUIDON.