10 reasons why you’ll love ORIGINS travel journal

Christmas is near and for the big coffee shop brands, they’re coming out with their usual, much coveted, but admittedly, rarely used planners. Why pay for something that you don’t really use? Bo’s Coffee on the other hand bucks the trend and brings you ORIGINS, a travel journal!

This is Bo’s Coffee’s thrust of showcasing Philippine coffee from different regions, different social enterprises that have made a big difference in communities as partners and a way of featuring local talent, both writers and photographers. (DISCLOSURE: I contributed three of five travel stories)

Origins: a Travel Journal is our way of honoring all things homegrown. More than promoting local products and talent, we created this in order to help people discover (or rediscover) places and stories that have always been there.

Below are top ten reasons why you will love this!

1 Origins is beautifully designed

The journal has a reusable leather jacket that feels good to the touch. The spine is covered with a colorful indigenous fabric (from Anthill Fabric Gallery). Inside, there are several color photos and drawings by Kenny Abigael Badana. It is compact and travel friendly.

The inside pages are never boring. Interspersed between blank pages are fun tips and trivia contributed by social entrepreneur partners, inspiring quotes, travel stories, coffee profiles and many more. Of course, there are several discount coupons too!

2 No need to collect stickers and wait for a long while to complete

Unlike the other cafes that make you buy and spend lots for drinks just to complete your stickers and have it exchanged for a (useless) planner, ORIGINS can be bought at Bo’s Coffee counters! It’s just a steal at P1,000, as the discount coupons is more than enough to offset what you pay for.

As it was just launched last Friday, 22 November, these planners will start to be available on the last week of November and can be bought at all Bo’s Coffee branches by then.

3 Lots and lots of blank pages!!!

This is one of the best things I like about this journal: no set dates, no lines and just blank pages!!! You can write what ever you want. You can make doodles or drawings of the places you’ve been to or details that caught your attention. You can paste tickets, photos or whatever.

It’s yours and you can do whatever you want with it! No pressure to write daily or put on something weekly. It’s not time bound and you can use it whenever you want as long as there are pages to fill. Isn’t it amazing?

4 Tick off your Philippine provinces bucket list

If I had this two years ago, I would have used this when I was about to complete visiting all Philippine provinces! For those who are on a personal mission or those who are just starting to visit around the country, this is a good guide to keep tabs of the provinces and islands you’ve visited or planning to visit.

5 Get to know more homegrown social enterprises

Bo’s Coffee through this journal showcases these businesses that are being led by young and dynamic Filipinos who want to help communities by offering responsible travel tours and espousing socially conscious products.

Do you know that the beautiful and stylish bags of Gouache benefit Marikina bag makers? Or that Nipa Foods have premium quality, natural and responsibly sourced local foodstuffs? Or check out the interesting tours offered by Trail Adventours, Culture Shock PH, Bambike, Route +63.

6 Oh, coupons, lots of discount coupons

Of course, the discount coupons are important. But what sets this apart is this: other than getting freebies and discounts from Bo’s Coffee, it also provides you with discounts, a buy 1 take 1 and great deals from products and services of its social enterprise partners.

P500 off for a Sagada trip from Trail Adentours, P500 off for a turtle conservation trip from Route +63. How about a P200 off for a Talaandig Cultural Imersion tour by Culture ShockPH? Or a 15% discount on beautiful Gouache bags? Would you want a Buy 1 Take 1 Bambike tour of Intramuros? And lots more ranging from food, to footwear, drinks and music!

7 Origins is interactive plus a chance to get 365 cups of coffee, FREE!

If you’ve done the Rizal@150 and toured the country just to complete the passport and stamps, ORIGINS is having its own set of challenges! In select branches in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, there are specific things to do that will earn you specific stamps and token unique to that branch.

If you complete 6 challenges, you’ll get P1500 worth of Bo’s Coffee goodies. Complete all 12 and you will have your free brewed coffee for each day of the year!

8 Interesting travel stories from homegrown travel writers

Get to read about wild boars and hunters as narrated by Jona while she was trekking Mt. Apo. Or learn from Johanna about an interesting theory on getting to higher ground with Sagada as her example. Or how about smelling something like pusit (squid) in the hinterlands of Benguet, getting a feel of how it is to ride a habal-habal in Mt. Kitanglad and the unfolding scenery atop Mt. Matutum as written by yours truly?

Get a feel of these featured places from the experiences of us travel writers.

9 Know the homegrown coffee flavor profiles

As they say, each coffee bean is unique, influenced and tempered by the weather, soil and air of its locality. Origins showcases the five coffee places where it sources its beans: Sagada, Benguet, Mt. Kitanglad, Mt. Matutum and Mt. Apo.

Would you want the light and nutty bean from Mt. Kitanglad? Or spicy with notes of cardamom and camphor for the coffee bean from Mt. Matutum? Each of these places brings you a unique coffee experience.

10 Useful travel tips and information

Especially useful for first time travelers, there are pages with important travel tips, trivias and insightful travel quotes that will make you a more smart, informed and inspired traveler. I do love one of Trail Adentour’s tip: Don’t follow the crowd, which I can really relate to. There’s also a pack checklist that can be of great help.

David Mitchell also tells us that travel is all about knowing more of yourself while Fliptrip offers this trivia: The Pearl of Allah was found in the waters off Palawan! Think about that!

Do check out any Bo’s Coffee shop and get your copy of ORIGINS: A TRAVEL JOURNAL.