I’m Greg Maliwanag. I grew up in the Philippines, raised my family in Turtle Rock — a little neighborhood in Irvine, California — and a few years ago, I moved to Lisbon. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve brought coffee with me.
In the Philippines, my family drank barako — thick, dark, poured from a pot that never got fully clean. In California, it was a drip machine and Saturday mornings at the kitchen table with my kids. In Lisbon, it’s a bica at a marble counter, ordered with a nod, gone in two sips.
“The cup changes. The ritual never does.”
I’m not a coffee expert. I’m not a barista or a roaster or a sommelier. I’m just someone who has been paying attention to coffee for sixty years — and who believes that every cup has a story if you know where to look.
This tour is my way of sharing the Lisbon I’ve come to love: the cafés where I’ve become a regular, the roasters who are changing what Portuguese coffee means, and the century-old coffeehouses where the walls have more stories than I do.
I named it Turtle Rock because that’s the place I carry with me — the neighborhood where my kids grew up, where my wife and I built our life. A turtle carries its home on its back. So do I. So does anyone who has ever moved far from where they started and found that home comes with you.
Come walk with me. I’ll show you my Lisbon.
Quick Facts
- Home:
- Lisbon, Portugal (by way of the Philippines and California)
- Coffee of choice:
- Bica at a marble counter, no sugar
- Favorite morning:
- Any morning where I get to share a cup with someone new
- Languages:
- English, Tagalog, survival Portuguese