Indonesia

You either love Indonesian coffee or you do not get it. It tastes of forest, wood, tobacco and dark chocolate, has almost no acidity and a body like syrup. The reason is less the plant than the processing, which exists in this form only here.

Giling basah

Sumatra is too humid to dry coffee calmly. Farmers depulp the cherries, let them ferment briefly and sell the still wet parchment coffee with 30 to 50 percent moisture to traders. Those remove the parchment straight away, while the bean is still soft, and finish drying the naked green coffee. The process is called giling basah, wet hulling. The beans turn a bluish green in the process and take on their earthy, heavy character. It is not a fault, it is a style.

The islands

Sumatra is the heart: Mandheling from the north near Lake Toba, Gayo from the Aceh highlands, Lintong. All giling basah, all heavy and spicy. Java has a colonial history of large state plantations and washed coffees that are cleaner and milder. Sulawesi delivers washed and wet hulled coffees from Toraja with more sweetness and spice. Bali and Flores are smaller and increasingly produce for the specialty market. In the lowlands of Sumatra, Java and Lampung grows the robusta that makes Indonesia the fourth largest producer.

Kopi luwak

The famous civet coffee, whose beans have passed through the digestive tract of a civet, comes from Indonesia. What started as a curiosity involving wild animals is today mostly caged animals, animal suffering and no gain in flavour. We advise against it.

In the cup

Indonesian coffees are the base of many dark roasts and espresso blends, because they give body and take away acidity. As filter coffee they are unusual but exciting: cedar, tobacco, spices, a long dry finish. With milk they turn into chocolate. Anyone looking for fruit acidity should look elsewhere.