How Much Does Indonesian West Java Coffee Cost and What's the Best Brewing Method?

Honey Process

The honey process, also called Honey Process or Miel Process and known as Honey Coffee, has been adopted by coffee plantations in Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala. The term refers to making raw beans that are sun-dried with mucilage still attached. After the outer pulp of the coffee cherry is removed, a layer of viscous, gelatinous substance remains. Traditional washed methods would rinse it away with clean water, but because water resources are limited at some high-altitude origins, the practice of drying the beans directly was born.

Honey processing is a relatively complex, time-consuming, and difficult method. The first step is to select high-quality fruit, then remove the pulp while leaving the endocarp, which is the core of honey processing. The endocarp is rich in sugar and acidity, and during drying the sweetness and acidity slowly penetrate the coffee beans. The second step is drying, which is also the most important condition for producing high-quality beans.

Honey processing lets coffee retain the cleanliness of washed processing. The brightness decreases, but sweetness and caramel texture increase. Depending on the degree of processing, honey coffee is divided into yellow honey, red honey, and black honey. The advantage of honey processing is that it preserves the original sweet flavor of ripe coffee fruit, giving the coffee an elegant brown-sugar flavor and fruity sweetness, while the berry notes support a wine-based aroma that makes it a very elegant product.

Varieties: Jember, S-795

Altitude: 1400-1600 meters

Flavor: Fruity, plum, jackfruit flavor, sweet aftertaste

Indonesia, West Java

The coffee beans are picked from the branches and separated from the fruit, then rinsed and dried. They are stirred every hour to ensure even drying, including at midnight.

The coffee processing takes 25-26 days. Not surprisingly, Aromanis coffee beans cost slightly more than ordinary beans. The Coffee Farmers' Cooperative sells Aromanis at 130,000-150,000 rupiah per kilogram, while Bian Shen Coffee offers a retail price of 80,000 rupiah per 200-gram package.

West Java Honey Processing Aromanis

Country: Indonesia

Estate: Aromanis

Region: Mount Tangkuban Perahu

Roast Level: Light roast

Processing Method: Honey process

West Java Province is a first-level administrative division of Indonesia, located in the western part of Java Island. It borders the Java Sea to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south, includes offshore islands, and covers an area of 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 the mountainous areas are much cooler. High humidity often creates a draining climate.

From November to March of the following year is the northwest monsoon period, with more rain and clouds; from April to October is the southeast monsoon period, with more sunny days and less rainfall. Jakarta's average annual rainfall is about 1,760 millimeters (69 inches). Jakarta's average daily high is 30°C (86°F) and its low is 23°C (74°F). In the highland area of Tosari, at an altitude of 1,735 meters (5,692 feet), the average temperature is 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. Here the name is used for this coffee to suggest that the beans have a cotton-candy-like texture. The beans actually come from Ciwidey and Garut in West Java, and no special coffee seed is used; coffee processed through natural drying simply presents this distinctive flavor. Of course, this flavor is not widely recognized in West Java, Indonesia.

Region: Mount Tangkuban Perahu, Indonesia

Altitude: 1400-1600 meters

Roast Level: Light

Processing Method: Honey process

Taste Description: Strong fruity aroma, with plum and jackfruit flavors, clean and sweet aftertaste.

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

West Java Honey Processing

Indonesian West Java Aromanis honey processed coffee scores as high as 92 points in cupping. The bean's English name, Aromanis, means "sweet mango" in Indonesian. At the estate, we tasted a completely different kind of Indonesian coffee. The farmers used the simplest hot-water immersion method to brew the coffee they had grown for us. Careful cultivation and processing let the coffee's flavor break away from the established framework of Indonesian coffee: fruit sweetness, lemon aroma, and even floral notes were strongly present across different varieties, truly overturning our perception of bitter, heavy flavors.

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Address: FrontStreet Coffee, Bao'an Qian Street, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City
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's Pour-over Recommendation for West Java:

15g of coffee grounds, medium grind (Fuji Royal grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water and bloom for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and stop. Wait until the water level drops to half, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama's coffee-growing areas lie in the west of the country, across Boquete, Volcan, Santa Clara, and Piedra de Candela. Boquete and Volcan are the two specialty regions most often discussed, both sitting in Chiriqui Province at the heart of the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil and ancient forest.

FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Washed Geisha is a fine starting point for anyone exploring Panama. Grown at 1,600 meters, it draws on volcanic-ash soil to build a rich, fragrant aroma, and brewed it shows jasmine florals, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed Butterfly carries half of Geisha's fine lineage, a blend of Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai planted in Boquete's Baru volcano area. Abundant rainfall, wide day-to-night temperature swings, and the region's distinctive volcanic-rock soil, together with careful picking and processing, give it solid body, citrus acidity, and Geisha's jasmine aroma; it works beautifully for both pour-over and cold brew.

At the top of the range, FrontStreet Coffee's Emerald Estate Red Label Geisha comes from a single plot above 1,700 meters and must meet a cupping score of 91, showing a delicate orange-blossom honeyed character. FrontStreet Coffee's Diamond Mountain, from the estate's star brand, is built mainly on Caturra and Catuai with beans drawn from the Jaramillo and Canas Verdes farms, where volcanic soil and old-growth shade yield rich fruit aroma and sweetness.