Yardstick Coffee

Yardstick Coffee started as a business-to-business roasting operation in Legazpi Village, Makati, founded by Andre Chanco, Kevin Tang, and Jessica Lee before it ever opened a retail storefront. That B2B foundation, supplying other businesses with roasted coffee, gave the founders a working roastery and sourcing relationships well before Yardstick became a destination in its own right, and before most of Manila's coffee-drinking public had heard the name.

Those relationships now span direct-trade lots from Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, Panama, and the Philippine highlands, a sourcing spread that mixes East African and Central/South American origins with beans grown domestically. The range reflects a roaster building its list from direct grower relationships across several continents rather than settling on a single regional focus.

That combination of B2B roots and direct-trade sourcing across five origins earned Yardstick a spot among the 2026 World's 100 Best Coffee Shops, recognition that marks its move from a Makati back-office roaster supplying other businesses to one of Manila's most credentialed specialty coffee names in its own right.