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Indonesian Coffee

So synonymous with coffee cultivation is Indonesia that the most populous of the nation’s 17,000 or so islands – Java – has wound up as a nickname for our favourite brew. But it’s worth doing a little research before you buy Indonesian coffee beans – because there are cups of java and then there are cups of java.

Indonesia is a huge country made up of lots of little pieces and something similar goes on with its coffee production. The nation has the fourth-largest output in the world, but much of the cultivation is small-scale – we’re talking a-few-coffee-trees-in-your-backyard small-scale.

Then there’s the unique way that beans are processed in Indonesia. Most of the coffees we source from around the world are either wet-processed (washed) or dry-processed (natural). It’s different with Indonesian beans, where the giling basah or wet-hulled method is the order of the day. Bear in mind that a coffee’s processing method has as big (some would say bigger) an effect on the roasted bean’s flavours as the inherent qualities of the just-harvested crop. Many of the typical characteristics associated with Indonesia’s coffee – an almost chewy feel in the mouth, and earthy base notes of wood and tobacco – are down to giling basah.

We source our Indonesian coffee beans from the 180-member Koperasi Surya Abada Kayumas cooperative, which operates out of two villages in the province of East Java, and processes their crop giling basah style. Buy jute Indonesian coffee beans – 100% arabica and hand-roasted in Northamptonshire – and you can expect a big, wet-hulled hit of apple, chocolate and raisin. We love this single blend as a long black or with milk.