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T

o a Filipino diet, coffee plus


kakanin (rice food products)
simply make a perfect match.
But do they also blend well for business?
Aini Hja chair of the Bangsamoro
Women Group Jolo Chapter and owner
of a coffee shop said coffee and kakanin are good business stuffs.
Going to coffee shops is a way of life
in Jolo. Muslims, Christians, kids, tricycle drivers, including laborers love and
enjoy the sensation they get from every
sip of the coffee.
If you are thinking that Jolo residents
are very rich to afford going to coffee
shops daily, then you are wrong. In fact,
Jolo is one of the poorest municipalities
in the Philippines. Their coffee shops
are not like those in Metro Manila
which are airconditioned with coffee
prices equivalent to a familys meal.
Aini sells rice-based food products at
outrageously low price coffee at PhP8
per glass; while the rice food products at
PhP2 to Php5 per piece. The rice food
products that Aini displays in her coffee
shop include daral, apaw, panggi-panggi,
palikambing, tikoy, and paam.

Aini Hja

24

October-December 2007, Vol. 20 No. 4

Coffee+kakanin
perfect match for business
JAIME A. MANALO IV
Coffee, in Ainis coffee shop, is
served really hot that you need to transfer it from one cup to the other several
times before you can drink it. And with
the delectable rice-based delicacies
served with it, your day will surely turn
complete and exalting.
Gusto talaga nila ang kape at ang
aming mga kakanin, magkakambal na
sila [They really love our coffee and rice
cakes. They said coffee and kakanin just
simply go well together for snacks],
Aini shared.
Ainis coffee shop is already 27 years
old. Just like any material wealth, cooking knowledge of the rice-based food
products can be inherited. She shared
that since they were little, they were

already helping their parents cook these


food items.
Ainis coffee shop now has six
branches installed all over Jolo. With
this business, she earns an average
income of PhP20,000 monthly. According to Aini, the education of her
nephews and nieces all came from the
coffee shop. Not only that, Aini was able
to go to Mecca twice, which according
to her requires an amount of
PhP120,000 to get there.
For 27 years now, Aini has been
spending all her life managing the coffee
shop.
Bukas kami from 5am to 8pm arawaraw kahit Sabadot Linggo (We are
open from 5am to 8pm daily, even on
Saturdays and Sundays), she said.
The main reason perhaps why her
business is successful is that she manages
and does the work herself. If she is not
at the cashiers booth, Aini must be at
the kitchen making sure that her ricebased food products are prepared well.
According to Abdulhallim Abubakar, agricultural promotions officer in
Sulu, spending time in a coffee shop in
Jolo is one thing that a tourist should
not miss. Not a coffee shop of its kind
can be found in Luzon and in the
Visayas, he added.

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