A Beloved Filipino Bakery Is Now Brewing One of the Bay Area’s Rarest Coffees

For more than three decades, Ling Nam (formerly Ling Nam Starbread) has cultivated a huge following for its sweet, pillowy señorita bread — arguably the Bay Area’s most widely beloved Filipino American baked treat. Now, the new Union City location of the bakery also serves a unique coffee that goes especially well with a fresh batch of señorita bread. 

The coffee is called Kapeng Barako, and it’s one of the rarest cups of coffee in the Bay Area. Barako is brewed with liberica, a lesser-known coffee bean from the Philippines that makes up less than 2% of coffee consumption worldwide. 

Owner Alexson Lim explains that when he opened the new Ling Nam Express in Union City in July, he wanted to add coffee to the menu to encourage customers to eat the señorita bread fresh out of the oven, instead of taking it to go like they do at other Ling Nam locations. 

“I didn’t want to just get any kind of regular coffee,” Lim says. “I wanted to promote beans from the Philippines.” 

Minorya Coffee, a Philadelphia-based purveyor of Philippine-grown liberica coffee, reached out to offer him a sample. Immediately, Lim was hooked by the coffee’s bold, woody flavor, which complemented the señorita bread’s sweet, buttery notes. 

Now, Lim drinks a cup nearly every morning.  He introduced the drink at the Union City shop in October. The coffee is served black and unsweetened. A whiff of it carries an intensely smoky and fruity aroma. As someone who usually takes his morning coffee with enough sugar to make it taste like dessert, I was surprised by how smooth and low in acidity each sip was.

To encourage customers to try the pairing, Lim has created a bundle that includes three pieces of señorita bread and a cup of Barako for only $4.50. That’s less than an order of coffee at most other shops in the Bay. It makes for a pretty ideal breakfast.

Still, Lim isn’t selling as much Barako as he would like — less than ten cups each day. He promotes the coffee by offering samples, showing people the beans, and telling them the story of where it’s sourced from in Batangas. Lim says many customers aren’t even aware that coffee is grown in the Philippines. In 1886, the country was the fourth largest exporter of coffee beans in the world, but insect infestation and coffee rust eventually collapsed the industry. Now, some conservationists believe liberica coffee is poised to be the future of coffee due to the plant’s resilience.

Minorya Coffee, Ling Nam’s supplier, has sold five tons of liberica beans to coffee shops across the U.S. since it started operations in 2022. Owner Regina Santos started the business as a small liberica farm in her family’s backyard in Lipa, in the Batangas province. She has since expanded to working with five liberica farms in Lipa. 

Here in the Bay Area, right now the only place where you can find Kapeng Barako is at the Ling Nam Express in Union City. Lim says he’s shared a cup of Barako with his father, Tony, who opened the original Ling Nam in Daly City in 1990. Eventually, he hopes to add the coffee to the menu at all of the family’s shops, including their upcoming location in South San Francisco. 

On a recent trip to New Orleans, Lim enjoyed beignets and chicory coffee at Cafe du Monde. He envisions a similar experience for customers at Ling Nam. 

“That’s the kind of joy I want to see when people are eating the bread fresh and drinking the coffee along with it,” Lim says.

Ling Nam Express is open daily, 7 a.m.–8 p.m., at 1760 Decoto Rd. in Union City. The Kapeng Barako coffee is currently only offered at this one location.