Indonesia West Java Honey Process Estate Ammani Premium Coffee Bean: Grading, Price, Green Beans and Roast Level

Coffee Origin Information

Region: Mount Tangkuban Perahu, Indonesia

Altitude: 1,400-1,600 meters

Roast Level: Light roast

Processing Method: Honey processing

Taste Description: Intense fruit aroma with plum and jackfruit flavors, clean and sweet aftertaste.

Flavor Profile: Complex floral notes on entry, tropical fruit flavors reminiscent of mango and jackfruit on the palate, a smooth and rich mouthfeel, and a long-lasting aftertaste.

West Java Honey Processing

Indonesia's West Java Aromanis honey process coffee scores an impressive 92 points in cupping. The English name "Aromanis" comes from Indonesian, meaning sweet mango.

At the estate, we experienced a completely different side of Indonesian coffee firsthand. Farmers used the simplest hot-water infusion method to brew us their homegrown coffee. Through careful cultivation and processing, the coffee's flavor breaks away from the established stereotypes of Indonesian coffee. Fruit sweetness, lemon fragrance, even floral notes are all prominently present across the varieties, truly overturning our sense of Indonesian coffee as simply bitter and rich.

Hand Brew Instructions

Hand-brewed West Java: 15g coffee grounds, medium grind (Fuji mountain ghost-tooth grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level drops by half, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

West Java Honey Processing Aromanis

Country: Indonesia

Estate: Aromanis

Region: Mount Tangkuban Perahu

Roast Level: Light roast

Processing Method: Honey processing

Honey Processing

Honey processing, also called Honey Process or Miel Process, produces what is known as Honey Coffee. Plantations in Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala have adopted this method. Honey processing means drying green beans with their mucilage left intact. After the outer pulp is removed from the coffee bean, a layer of viscous, gelatinous substance remains. Traditional washed processing uses clean water to wash it away, but because water resources are limited in some high-altitude regions, this direct-drying method was developed.

Honey processing is a relatively complex, time-consuming, and difficult method. The first step is selecting high-quality fruit, then removing the pulp while leaving the parchment, the core of honey processing. The parchment contains abundant sugars and acids, which slowly permeate the coffee bean during drying. The second step is drying, also the most important condition for producing high-quality beans.

Honey processing allows coffee to retain the cleanliness of washed processing. Although brightness decreases somewhat, sweetness and caramel flavors increase. According to different degrees of honey processing, honey-processed coffees are divided into yellow honey, red honey, and black honey. The advantage of honey processing is that it best preserves the original sweet flavors of ripe coffee fruit, presenting the coffee with subtle brown-sugar flavors and nut-kernel sweetness, while berry flavors support red-wine-toned aromas, making it a very elegant product.

Additional Information

Varieties: Jember, S-795

Altitude: 1,400-1,600 meters

Flavor: Fruit aroma, plum, jackfruit flavors, clean sweet aftertaste

West Java, Indonesia

West Java Province is a first-level administrative division of Indonesia. Located in the western section of Java Island, it faces the Java Sea to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south and includes nearshore islands. The area covers 46,300 square kilometers. Java has a tropical rainforest climate, hot and humid year-round. The plains along the northern coast have the highest temperatures, while mountainous areas are much cooler. High humidity often creates trying weather conditions.

From November to March of the following year the northwest monsoon brings more rain and cloud; from April to October the southeast monsoon brings more sunny days and less rainfall. Jakarta's average annual rainfall is about 1,760 millimeters (69 inches). Its average daily high is 30°C (86°F), with a low of 23°C (74°F). In the inland highlands of Tosari (elevation 1,735 meters [5,692 feet]), the average temperature ranges from 22-8°C (72-47°F). Because volcanic ash periodically fertilizes the land, Java's soil is very fertile.

"Aromanis" is a unique traditional Indonesian sweet snack made from the basic ingredients of flour and sugar. Using Aromanis to name this coffee indicates that the beans have a cotton-candy-like quality. The beans themselves come from Ciwidey and Garut in West Java. In fact no special coffee seed is used; it is coffee processed through the natural drying method that develops these distinctive flavors, which are, of course, not widely recognized in West Java itself.

Coffee beans are picked from the branches and separated from the fruit, then rinsed and immediately dried. The beans are "diserok" (turned) every hour for even drying, including at midnight. "This is very important at night because of the high humidity," said Ariyev of Transform Coffee (August 5, 2014), translated from the original Indonesian text.

The coffee processing takes 25-26 days, which is why Aromanis beans are a little more expensive than ordinary coffee. The coffee farmers' cooperative sells Aromanis green beans for 130,000-150,000 rupiah per kilogram, while Transform Coffee offers them at a retail price of 80,000 rupiah per 200-gram package.

Product Information

Shelf Life: 90 days

Net Weight: 227g

Packaging: Bulk coffee beans

Roast Level: Roasted coffee beans

Sugar Content: Sugar-free

Origin: Indonesia

Roast Degree: Light roast

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this honey-processed West Java coffee has you thinking about Indonesia, the country's best-known coffee is Mandheling. FrontStreet's Indonesia wet-hulled Mandheling comes from the Lake Toba area of the Lindong region in Sumatra and uses the wet-hulled method, stripping the parchment while the bean is still half-dry and half-wet so the green bean is exposed to the air, which gives Mandheling its characteristic herbal and spice notes. Roasted medium-dark to bring out the classic profile, it delivers a low-acid, full-bodied cup with caramel, dark chocolate, and toasted bread aromas and a long, sweet finish, well suited to anyone who prefers a strong, low-acid coffee.

For the top of the Indonesian range there is FrontStreet's PWN Golden Mandheling. PWN is a trading house that focuses on purchasing premium Mandheling green beans, and Golden Mandheling is its signature product. Its screening standards are rigorous, covering bean density, screen size, shape, and color, with each lot passing one machine selection and several rounds of hand selection to remove defects, so the beans come out plump, complete, uniform, large, and translucent with the muddy, grassy side of Mandheling reduced. Freshly roasted, it shows sandalwood, herbs, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel, and dark chocolate in a clean, sweet, rich, and highly layered cup, suited to daily drinking and to gifting.

Indonesia is also central to espresso. In the days before light-roast, high-acid coffee became fashionable, Mandheling was considered the world's fullest, most aromatic coffee and was often used in espresso blends; the classic Mamba recipe paired Mandheling with Brazilian coffee, combining Mandheling's wild character with Brazil's smooth body, the nutty sweetness balancing Mandheling's stronger bitterness and herbal notes. FrontStreet's Classic Blend adds a small amount of Robusta to a base of Mandheling and Brazilian coffee and roasts it dark so dark chocolate, nuts, and caramel reach their peak, with the golden, abundant crema a proper espresso or moka pot coffee needs.