I Found Art In A Coffee Place

September 29 was National Coffee Day, and my husband and I were blessed  with an opportunity to participate in an activity hosted by the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Alabang. This was in line with their #HappyCoffeeBeanMonth celebration.

I admit I love my daily caffeine fix, but you won’t get an intelligent answer from me if you ask me to describe the aroma or acidity, and what’s the difference between Arabica and Robusta. Thankfully, the first hour of yesterday’s event was focused on talking about that: the history and basics of coffee. We also did a hands on activity on coffee cupping, which allowed us to taste and describe different coffee products of CBTL.

The next part of the activity focused on coffee painting. This was what caught my attention to begin with when I signed up for our slots, as I’ve recently been honing in on art. I have not seen coffee art before, so I was pumped for this workshop.

Rev Cruz facilitated the coffee painting activity. He is a children’s book illustrator and had been using coffee for his art for almost five years now. It all started when he was on an all-nighter wrapping up on work when he accidentally spilled coffee on his nearly finished watercolor painting. The coffee spill turned out to add a beautiful effect on his art, and since then he has been using coffee stain as one of his mediums of painting.

For the coffee painting workshop we were provided with a paintbrush, pieces of watercolor paper, paper plate, and a sketch. Rev first made us practice making our own shades of coffee stains. He then shared tips on blotting and correcting, and drying the layers before adding on a different coat of paint. We used two practice sheets of watercolor paper before working on ‘the real’ project for the day, where we had to come up with our own artistic interpretation of the sketch that was given to us. Afterwards, all paintings were displayed for everyone to see, and Rev chose three winners based on the practical usage of the tips he shared during the workshop.

Overall, I’d say this was the best event by CBTL that I’ve joined so far. We went over time but I was having too much fun that I didn’t notice the time. Yesterday’s event gave me a deeper appreciation of coffee, connected me with the participants, and allowed me to discover a different medium for art. I can’t wait to practice more on my coffee painting!