Great Taste Coffee Makers

Great Taste Coffee Makers
Joined PBA 1975
History Presto Ice Cream
1975-1976
1977-1978
1981-1982
1988-1990
1992
N-Rich
1976-1977
1982-1983
Great Taste Coffee Makers
1978-1980
1983-1988
Presto Tivoli
1990-1992
Team colors navy, white & yellow (Presto/Tivoli)
orange & brown (Great Taste)
Owner(s) {{{owner}}}
Company Consolidated Foods Corporation
Head coaches Tony Genato, Chino Marquinez, Nilo Verona, Baby Dalupan, Jimmy Mariano
Championships PBA All-Filipino Cup (1984, 1985, 1987, 1990), PBA Invitational (1984), PBA Open Conference (1985)
Disbanded 1992
Uniforms
Great Taste dark uniform
Presto-Tivoli dark uniform

Great Taste Coffee was one of the Pioneer teams in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The company was then known as the Consolidated Foods Corporation (CFC) and their chief products included well known brands like Presto Ice Cream, N-Rich Coffee Cream, Jack & Jill Fun Snacks, Great Taste Coffee among others.

Contents

Profile and history

The company was perhaps one of the biggest food corporations back in the 70s and is still considered one of the biggest today with Universal Robina Corporation (URC) as well as in other diversified industries like Robinson's Land Corporation (RLC) (realty) and Sun Cellular (telecommunications). They were known for their different tag names; the Coffeemakers, the Coffee Creamers, the Discoverers, the Ice Cream Makers, the Tivolis, etc.

While Great Taste was known to be a blockbuster and powerhouse team to those who got to watch the game in the early 1980s, this team was also one of the ragtag and also-ran teams of the 1970s. Not exactly blessed with the biggest names among the present set of players then, they did become competitive owing more on the sheer hearts of their players rather than talents. Notable players who donned the Presto/Great Taste jersey in the 70s included the Guzman brothers Noel and Joel, Manny Paner, Florendo Ritualo (the father of Ren-Ren), Danny Pribhdas (the father of Danilo, Jr of the UST Growling Tigers), Roy Deles, among others. Imports who shared the limelight with the Presto locals during the 70's included Dana Lewis, Niño Samuel, Jim Hearns, Daryl Smith, Jim Collins, Cisco Oliver (returned in 1978) and Lew Brown. Coaches included Tony Genato (Quinito Henson's father in law), Chino Marquinez (who also acted as team manager) and Nilo Verona.

The real big turnaround started when they were able to secure the services of then Filipino-American rookie Ricardo Brown. It is said that Brown was practically stolen by Great Taste team manager Ignacio Gotao from Crispa owner Danny Floro, who has already formalized a commitment from the "Quick Brown Fox" to play for the Redmanizers. But as fate would have it, Brown was secured for the Coffeemakers, along with Bogs Adornado who was pried away from the U-Tex Wranglers, Manny Victorino (then considered one of 3 elite centers in the league, alongside Ramon Fernandez and Abet Guidaben), Joel Banal, Jimmy Manansala, Joy Carpio, Rafael "Cho' Sison (the 1981 Rookie of the Year), and import Norman Black. Of course, the real sweetener was the entry of Coach Baby Dalupan for the team - first as team consultant behind his godson Jimmy Mariano, only to secure the top coaching job when Mariano was "fired" for his ill-advised statement "we didn't intend to win.” This was said after a shocking loss to lowly Galerie Dominique since Presto was already secured of a slot in the next round.

Now a powerful and potent squad, Great Taste became the toast of the PBA, dominating the mid-80s, winning four straight championships between 1984-85, with a strong local lineup coupled by even more potent imports in the likes of Joe Binion and Jeff Collins. In 1987, the team even became stronger when the likes of Philip Cezar, Atoy Co, Arnie Tuadles and Bernie Fabiosa joined the Coffee Makers. Add to this the blue chip rookie in the draft in the name of Allan Caidic and this became the team to beat. They were deemed as the second arrival of the disbanded Redmanizers at that time, with such a talent-laden squad to consider, plus a championship coach to boast of.

Presto won its final championship in 1990 featuring the superstar veteran Allan Caidic (named Most Valuable Player of the Year) and rookies Gerald Esplana (named Rookie of the Year) and Apet Jao (the top draft pick). More blue chip players came their way including Vergel Meneses in 1992 and Bong Hawkins until they eventually disbanded at the end of the 1992 season with Sta. Lucia buying the franchise rights including its rights for the first pick of the 1993 draft. It was Jun Limpot who eventually ended up to be the top pick of the said year.

Season-by-season records

Legend
      Champion
      Runner-up
      Semifinalist
Season Conference Team name Overall record Finals
W L  %
1975 All-Filipino Cup Presto Ice Cream 6 18 .250
Open Conference
Invitational Conference
1976 All-Filipino Cup N-Rich 3 29 .094
Open Conference
Invitational Conference
1977 All-Filipino Cup Presto Ice Cream 15 30 .333
Open Conference
Invitational Conference
1978 All-Filipino Cup Great Taste Coffee Makers 5 23 .179
Open Conference
Invitational Conference
1979 All-Filipino Cup 21 26 .447
Open Conference
Invitational Conference
1980 Open Conference 14 25 .359
Invitational Conference
All-Filipino Cup
1981 Open Conference Presto Ice Cream 17 26 .395
Invitational Conference
1982 Reinforced Filipino Cup Great Taste Coffee Makers 19 27 .413
Invitational Conference
Open Conference N-Rich
1983 All-Filipino Cup Great Taste Coffee Makers 38 25 .603
Reinforced Filipino Cup Crispa 3, Great Taste 2
Open Conference Crispa 3, Great Taste 0
1984 First All-Filipino Cup 39 14 .736 Crispa 4, Great Taste 1
Second All-Filipino Cup Great Taste 3, Beer Hausen 0
Invitational Conference Great Taste 3, Crispa 2
1985 Open Conference 44 27 .620 Great Taste 4, Magnolia 2
All-Filipino Cup Great Taste 3, Shell 1
Reinforced Conference
1986 Open Conference 36 28 .563
All-Filipino Cup
Reinforced Conference Tanduay 4, Great Taste 2
1987 Open Conference 35 25 .583 Tanduay 4, Great Taste 1
All-Filipino Cup Great Taste 3, Hills Bros. 0
Reinforced Conference
1988 Open Conference 26 34 .433
All-Filipino Cup Presto Ice Cream
Third Conference
1989 First Conference 18 32 .360
All-Filipino Cup
Third Conference
1990 First Conference 40 29 .580
All-Filipino Cup Presto Tivoli Presto 4, Purefoods 3
Third Conference Presto Ice Cream
1991 First Conference Presto Tivoli 21 29 .420
All-Filipino Cup
Third Conference
1992 First Conference Presto Ice Cream 11 29 .275
All-Filipino Cup
Third Conference
Overall record 408 476 .462 6 championships

Team roster

PBA 25 greatest players

Other notable players

Imports

Coaches

Team managers

External links

Preceded by
(start)
PBA teams genealogies
1975-1992
Succeeded by
Sta. Lucia Realtors