The Araw Araw Blend by Common Man Coffee Roasters is an homage to Manila

Intentionality in Concept

The first concept was environment-based. It explored Manila as a tropical destination—often associated with tropical fruits like mangoes and oranges. While these fruits are mainstays in how we imagine tropical settings, in terms of specialty coffee, flavors with mangoes and orange notes are not so common. The second concept had a cultural approach, taking inspiration from the idea of Filipino childhood—of waking up every morning to the smell of coffee and bread and seeing the adults around you dip their warm pandesals over mugs of hot coffee.

Lastly, the third concept was a simple and straightforward interpretation of Manila—highlighting its grit and raw charm. This concept was borne out of mundane day-to-day observations of the team towards Manila—how instead of looking down, one must start looking up and around to appreciate its charm—decades-old houses, 90s architecture, bare lots overgrown with vegetation, and the way Manila sunlight lands on surfaces. All these micro personalities and hidden gems of Manila that we often take for granted make up its unparalleled allure.

Intentionality in Taste

This celebration of Manila’s raw charm is how Common Man Coffee Roasters chose to do its homage to Manila, the city that embraced it with open arms. Translating this raw charm into a blend meant finding the balance between what Filipinos know coffee to be, which is chocolate and nutty notes and something new that Common Man Coffee Roasters aims to offer, which are fruity notes.

The result? A blend that starts with taste notes of chocolates but slowly transitions a hint of black currant and ends with notes of blueberries for a lingering fruity aftertaste. This subtle fruity aftertaste is their way of providing their patrons an entry point to a different flavor profile of coffee, potentially expanding the Filipinos’ coffee palate.

“It was always about meeting them [customers] halfway,” they shared. “We could easily just push for what we want, but instead we always ask ourselves, ‘What do our consumers want?’ But at the same time, we did not want to stray away from what we’re used to as a brand so the balance is introducing something new but in a slower and more subtle way.”

Intentionality in Consumption

The team also paid close attention to the many ways how the Araw Araw blend was going to be consumed. Beyond the story and notes, the goal was to make it an everyday and anytime-of-the-day drink.

Since a lot of Filipinos like their coffee with milk, they made sure that the blend works well with milk as a latte. A lot of younger Filipinos prefer it plain iced so they made sure that it works well as an iced americano. In addition to that, knowing how Filipinos have the habit of ordering takeout and not taking a sip of their coffee until after they arrived in their office or home, they tested how the blend would taste once “aged.” The blend encompasses a universal experience and covers a range of preferences for Filipino consumers.

“That’s where the name Araw Araw came from,” they shared. “We wanted it to be an everyday drink.”

“We were really inspired by our culture, our ways of consumption, and also how we kind of want to bring the coffee culture that we have right now and where we want it to go. The blend is testament to our dedication to providing a new experience for you.”