Indonesian Java Coffee Bean Flavor Profile - Java Coffee Bean Price & Where to Buy

Indonesia: The Land of a Thousand Islands

Indonesia, the "Land of a Thousand Islands," is the country with the most islands in the world. When people mention Indonesia, the place they know best is probably the resort island of Bali. Today I'd like to introduce Indonesian Java coffee.

What is the Flavor of Indonesian Coffee?

Clean + fruity + sweet + spicy! Many people disagree with that answer, though. They believe traditional Indonesian coffee should have rich earthy notes, a stimulating spiciness from fermentation, and damp, woody fibre characteristics.

Varieties

In Indonesia, 90% of coffee is Robusta, likely a result of the devastating coffee leaf rust epidemic in the 19th century. In the Toraja region, however, 95% of coffee is Arabica. The main variety in Sulawesi's Toraja region is S795, also known as Jember, an Arabica with strong resistance to leaf rust and prominent sweetness with maple syrup and brown sugar flavours.

1. Sumatra: Sumatra Coffee

Sumatra Island is Indonesia's largest coffee-producing region. The well-known growing areas are concentrated mainly in the northern mountains. Famous coffees include Mandheling, Lintong and Gayo Mountain.

Mandheling takes its name from the local Mandailing people, with production mostly pointing to the mountains north of Lake Toba, though the specific areas need further verification.

Lintong coffee comes from the foothills around Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake on Sumatra in North Sumatra Province. The name comes from the small town of Lintong southwest of Lake Toba.

Gayo Mountain coffee comes from the mountains around Takengon and Lake Tawar in Aceh Province.

2. Java Coffee Beans: Java Coffee

Java was the earliest region in Indonesia to grow coffee, and as early as the 18th century it dominated the world coffee market. The famous Java Mocha, made by mixing Java coffee with Yemen Mocha, represents the coffee impression of an era. There is also the classic Monsoon Coffee (monsooned coffee) or aged coffee.

Coffee cultivation on Java began on large farms established by Dutch colonists in the 18th century. After World War II and various changes, it gradually shifted to smallholder cultivation. High-quality Java coffee typically comes from the remaining five large farms. Although Java's production is only about 10% of Indonesia's total, it forms an important part of the country's specialty coffee.

3. Sulawesi: Sulawesi Coffee

The most famous region on Sulawesi Island is Toraja.

Toraja coffee comes from the Tana Toraja region of South Sulawesi Province and is named after the local Toraja people. Tana Toraja lies about 300 kilometers north of the provincial capital, Makassar, and is a well-known Indonesian tourist destination.

Initially, the Sulawesi coffee industry supplied mainly the Japanese market.

Processing

The main processing method for Indonesian coffee is wet-hulling. This drying method is one of the things that makes traditional Indonesian coffee unique. Locally it is also called Giling Basah, the traditional Indonesian processing method.

1. Why Use Wet Hulling

The tradition of wet-hulling in Indonesia comes from local weather. Indonesia's humidity stays between 70-90% year-round, with continuous typhoons, and in some regions annual rainfall can reach as much as 2,000mm.

In Indonesia's humid climate, drying coffee is a real problem. Drying has to take longer, during which the coffee stays at high humidity, which makes it easier for bacteria to penetrate the green beans. Wet-hulling removes the parchment for the final drying step, letting direct sunlight reach the surface of the green bean and drying it quickly, 2-3 times faster than washed processing.

2. Wet Hulling Processing Method

Wet-hulling is a variation of washed processing that can generally be completed by the farmers themselves.

1. Remove skin and pulp, keeping parchment and mucilage
2. Water tank fermentation
3. Wash off mucilage
4. Sun-dry with parchment for 2-3 days until moisture content reaches 20-24%
5. Hull off the parchment
6. Dry green beans to 12-13% moisture content
7. Prepare for export

In this complex drying process the beans undergo slight moulding, creating Sumatra coffee's famous "earthy" flavour. This natural earthy aroma shows up as a complex, stimulating sweetness that is delicate and pleasant, at least for Sumatra's micro-batch estate coffees about a decade ago.

Over time, Sumatra's wet-hulling method has been further improved, with earthy flavours becoming marginalised while sweetness deepened. Some people associate these earthy aromas with fresh fallen leaves, tobacco, cedar, fir trees and peppercorns: slightly fruity, with soft acidity and a full body.

3. Processing Defects: Kuku Kambing

When the parchment is hulled off in wet-hulling, the coffee's moisture content is still as high as 20-24%, whereas in general processing it drops to 10-12% before hulling. In this "semi-dry" state the parchment tends to cling to the green bean surface, making hulling harder than "fully-dry" hulling and requiring greater friction.

On the other hand, "semi-dry" green beans are very fragile at this point, with far less hardness than "fully-dry" beans, so they are more easily squeezed into small chips. This is what we call horse hoof or goat hoof beans, locally known as kuku kambing.

The ultra-fast speed of wet-hulling also produces more defects in Mandheling. At processing plants, staff carry out manual defect sorting, typically DP (double picking) and TP (triple picking). Mandheling that undergoes triple picking has a better defect rate than double picking.

4. Wet Hulling's Impact on Toraja Region Coffee Flavor

S795 has prominent sweetness, black cherry and nutmeg spice, with a high body. International cupper Mauricio Murillo describes Sulawesi coffee as having balanced fruit and earthy flavours.

Some roasters believe Toraja is popular in Japan, the United States and some European countries because it can serve as a "bridge" between traditional coffee consumers, who prefer body, and modern consumers, who prefer flavour, especially fruit and cleanliness, accommodating both habits.

Local roasters and cuppers believe the flavour profile of specialty coffee from the Toraja region is sweet nuts and caramel with a medium, smooth body, acidity reminiscent of citrus and passion fruit, a stimulating spiciness similar to cinnamon and clove, cocoa notes in the aftertaste, and an overall balanced, clean character.

Grading

Indonesia's coffee grading system can be traced back to the Dutch colonial era, and the latest standards are still based on defect scoring. The quality standards were revised in 1983 and implemented in October 1990 as Standar Nasional Indonesia (SNI) biji kopi, No: 01-2907-1999.

Washed and dry-processed coffees are divided into 6 grades, G1 to G6, where G4 splits into G4a and G4b, and G1 is the highest. That is, G1, G2, G3, G4a, G4b, G5, G6. Usually export beans are G4 or above.

1. General Standards for Green Coffee Beans

• Moisture content. WP washed beans maximum 12%, DP dry-processed beans maximum 13%
• Foreign matter content. Maximum 0.5%
• No live insect beans, moldy beans, or stinky beans
• Sample defect count, 300g

2. Grading Reference

3. Natural Coffee Defect Count Reference

Java Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian honey-processed West Java coffee beans offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they are extremely good value: a 100-gram pack costs only about 250 RMB. At 15g per single-origin cup, one pack makes 6 cups, each costing only 40-50 RMB. Compared with café prices that often exceed 100 RMB a cup, that is exceptional value.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To taste what wet-hulling really does to a cup, the highest grade available is the place to go: FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling. PWN mainly buys high-quality Mandheling green beans, then sorts them once by machine and by hand, picking out full, defect-free beans so that the output is specialty grade, and Golden Mandheling is its flagship. The beans are even and plump, large and clear, with a low defect rate, and after medium-dark roasting they carry a rich roasted aroma; the brewed black coffee has a clean mouthfeel and a full, thick body, and it is a great fit for anyone who dislikes acidic coffee.

A pour-over shows Golden Mandheling at its best. FrontStreet suggests 87-88°C water, 15g of coffee, a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio and a coarse-sugar grind, poured in three stages, which better expresses the thick body and caramel sweetness. The first stage is a 30ml bloom that wets all the coffee and lets it degas so later extraction is more complete; the second pours 100ml, mainly to bring out the golden foam and lift the bed; the final stage is a soft 95ml pour down the centre, which raises sweetness and brings out the solid body, caramel sweetness and chocolate and nut notes.

If you want that Mandheling character in an espresso machine, FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend is the most repurchased option. On top of the creamy nuttiness of Brazilian coffee it adds medium-dark roasted Mandheling, so butter, roasted chestnut and caramel notes stand out; the Mandheling lifts the body of the whole cup and gives it sandalwood, herbal and spice accents, while a small amount of Robusta boosts the richness of the crema, making latte art or a layered Dirty easy to pull off.