10 years of Basti's

I found myself in great company Monday with fellow media personalities and bloggers outside the sports beat to celebrate 10 great years of Basti’s Brew—Davao’s favorite coffee shop.

For a coffee lover like me, I wake up each day knowing that a cup of coffee makes the world go round. Needless to say, I am a coffee person with a good percentage of my body fluid contaminated with caffeine.

Do I complain? No. I believe it comes with the territory. I think and write faster with a cup in tow. Be it espresso or cappuccino.

I won’t recommend it for athletes though. Here’s why.

Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee’s list of prohibited substances. Athletes who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level may be reached after drinking about 5 cups of coffee. Ouch! Any coffee athletics out there?

Better heed this.

I shared table and had a wonderful talk with old hands (we don’t call ourselves veterans) like Boyet Castillo and Roland Jumawan. Jojie Alcantara of course is the chief culprit why we are sipping Davao’s best coffee at that time of the day. Basti’s co-owners Randall Ong and his wife Van were there to oblige to our querries. But Bong Aportadera, the brains behind this one-stop coffee shop-radio station project was out with his busy schedule as the city’s tourism officer.

Basti’s knows their clients best and they are the kind of coffee shop that is created for us, coffee lovers and techie freaks who bring our laptops like it is our life support system. Basti’s was first to offer free wifi for the record. Separate areas for the smokingkind. Local beans. Very homely. Very us. It’s as if you are never a Davawenyo unless your tongue has been washed with Basti’s coffee.

For the record, did you know that both the American Revolution and the infamous French Revolution were born in coffee houses? The American Revolution grew from roots planted by patriots in the Green Dragon (some say it was the Green Lion) Public House in the Lloyd's District of London. The infamous French Revolution happened in 1789 when the Parisians, spurred on by Camille Desmoulins's verbal campaign, took to the streets and two days later the Bastille fell, marking the overthrow of the French Government and changing France fore-ver.

That’s too much to brew in my brain.

For now, I’d savor the sweet aroma of cappuccino Basti’s-style. Throw in my all-time fave carrot cake and I know I’m in heaven.

Postscripts: With us too at Basti's were Bert Tomas and new acquaintance Zhaun, and yes, future acquaintance Ria Jose. Thanks Jojie for the bonus Basti's baseball cap.