Ground Coffee in the Philippines

If you don't know yet, the Filipino people prefer to drink instant coffee which I find mind boggling now. Coffee grows in the Philippines but I guess they don't grow that much that it is rather hard to find "Coffee from Grounds" in the Philippines. I left the Philippines December of 2009 and was drinking instant coffee. When I first lived in NJ I would tell my husband to go to an Asian store so I could get those "3 in 1" coffee (instant), cause it was what I preferred. But after trying real brewed coffee several times, I was hooked and did not want any more instant coffee cause it doesn't taste or smell the same. I loved waking up in the morning with that coffee aroma!

Then I promised myself, once I come home to the Philippines I will get myself a coffee maker and ground coffee but to my dismay -- coffee makers were so hard to find and if you do find one they were rather expensive! And another thing that I did not even know in the past, there were no ground coffee in the coffee aisle. The coffee aisle is packed with instant coffee -- different names and brands but no ground coffee! 

Ground coffee is hard to find in the Philippines. They do have coffee shops like Bo's Coffee and Starbucks etc., but if you live here for a while you have to have your own at home. Right now, me and my husband are living in the province of Cebu... Central Philippines. Two big malls that foreigners mostly visit are SM City Cebu and Ayala. Me and husband had to go around so many stores and supermarkets and malls to check which ones carry ground coffee. We tried a local brand, from somewhere in Mindanao and it was just not the same. The smell of freshness when you first open a container was not there and maybe the way it was roasted was not right because even the taste had a little hint of cardboard. Finally we were able to find a store that had Folger's and Maxwell House. My heart jumped for joy! LOL. I know it's just coffee but I didn't like drinking instant coffee at all. So far we have been drinking folger's in the morning -- they are kind of expensive here because they were imported but so worth it. We still have to try starbucks or bo's -- they say they sell beans and will grind them for us.