Introduction to Bali Coffee Bean Varieties - Why You Should Never Buy Coffee in Bali?

For many people around the world today, coffee is more than a morning beverage. It is a personal culture and a lifestyle. From cheap instant coffee to mysterious, exquisite cups of black gold, coffee enthusiasts worldwide wake up talking about coffee.

In 1696, during the Dutch colonial period, coffee was first introduced to Indonesia through Batavia, now Jakarta, when the Dutch brought Arabica coffee and cultivated it along the route from Cibodas National Park to Puncak Peak. This became one of the Dutch's top products. The East India Company, the VOC, first exported Indonesian coffee in 1711, and over the following 10 years exports grew to 60 tons annually.

In Indonesia, coffee is not just a lifestyle but also an important commodity for the country. Indonesia is one of the world's largest coffee producers, alongside countries like Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia. It is not only consumed by Indonesians but has also become a source of livelihood for many people, from coffee farmers to coffee traders, and it is an important part of daily life.

Indonesia produces some of the world's best coffee beans, including the one Oprah introduced as "the world's most expensive coffee": Bali coffee beans.

Today, many coffee enthusiasts travel to the Indonesian archipelago to taste a cup of mysterious and delicious Java coffee.

Balinese Kintamani Coffee - Tamani

Bali is also popular for coffee beans produced in the cool highlands of Kintamani. Unlike other coffee varieties, Kintamani is quite unique among Arabica coffees because of its mild taste, medium acidity, and a slight fruity flavor. The fruity taste comes from these coffees being grown alongside fruits and vegetables, with the beans absorbing the surrounding flavors. If you want to try an extraordinary cup, Kintamani coffee is an excellent choice to bring back and share with family and friends.

Toraja Coffee

The people of Tana Toraja on Sulawesi Island cultivate and grow exquisite Toraja coffee beans. This is a multi-dimensional coffee that grows in the northern highlands of South Sulawesi. Its mature fruit is distinguished by a rich flavor and dark chocolate color. The Toraja people produce two types of beans, Arabica and Robusta. Toraja coffee has a rich, musty fruit aroma and a rustic sweetness. For those who dislike bitter coffee, this is the best choice, because when you taste it the initial bitterness disappears miraculously, leaving a wonderful pleasure in your mouth.

Aceh Gayo Coffee

Every Indonesian knows Aceh Gayo coffee, which grows in the Gayo highlands of central Aceh in northeastern Sumatra. Besides the joking reference to "Gayo," it is also one of the best-selling coffees nationwide. Although Arabica and Robusta beans are both made into Gayo coffee, the most commonly consumed and exported is Arabica Gayo. Gayo Arabica has a strong and complex taste, a very strong aroma, and a very mild bitterness, making it an excellent coffee.

Flores Bajawa Coffee

Flores is renowned for its unparalleled beauty and is the home of the world's "Hobbit" ancestors. This amazing region also produces some of the world's best coffee. Flores Island is a larger island stretching from west to east, from Bali to East Timor. Bajawa is a port town in the southern coastal highlands, where coffee is also grown. The cultivation of Arabica coffee follows traditional methods passed down through generations. The characteristic flavor comes from a strong fragrance of flowers, chocolate, earth, and sometimes moist tobacco. Using the wet hulling process, which leaves a relatively thick pulp, that unique aromatic flavor can only be found in this region.

Kopi Luwak

Indonesia is also the origin of the world's most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak. The historical origin of Kopi Luwak is as interesting as its taste. Authentic Kopi Luwak is collected from the feces of wild civets, common and coconut civets, nocturnal cats that roam coffee plantations at night foraging for premium mature coffee beans. But they cannot digest the stones or the cherries, so these pass through the civets' digestive systems and are excreted whole. Coffee farmers then collect, clean, and process them. The fermentation in the civet's stomach breaks down coffee proteins and removes bitterness, making Kopi Luwak smoother, more rustic, and chewy. Its low acidity makes it easily digestible even for people with stomach ulcers and digestive problems.

So how much would you be willing to pay for such a strange and wonderful bitter medicinal juice?

We can't seem to stop introducing articles about coffee. There is another coffee in Indonesia you must try at least once in your lifetime. The rumor that Sumatra is a paradise for coffee plantations is indeed true. This island also has another treasure that coffee lovers love: Sidikalang coffee from North Sumatra.

Sidikalang coffee has both a strong aroma and a strong taste, with a spicy flavor similar to Lintong Nihuta. It has lower acidity and a chocolate taste, and its best preparation method is the tubruk method, or plain coffee without sugar. If you have time in September, you can visit the Njuah Njuah Festival at Lake Toba in North Sumatra from September 26 to 30, 2016, where you'll be amazed by the local culture and can taste a cup of authentic hot Sidikalang coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The body and sweetness that define so many Indonesian cups have a counterpart on the other side of the world. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic Brazilian single origin, processed with the semi-washed, or pulped natural, method and roasted to a medium level. It pours out a rich aroma of cream peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut, with a rounded body, little acidity, and a light bittersweet note, and it works across a pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, or French press.

Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer, and its beans carry a pleasant balance of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and body that suits medium roasting well, which is why they work both as a single origin and in blends. For a fruitier take on the same Bourbon family, FrontStreet's Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon comes from Mogiana, near South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil develops a full aroma; the yellow Bourbon mutation brings a cleaner fruit character with a sugarcane sweetness alongside fruit and chocolate.

Read against the earthy, herbal depth of a Sumatran Mandheling or the sweet, mild body of a Kintamani, these Brazilian lots show how differently two origins can express richness, one through tropical earth and spice, the other through nuts, caramel, and quiet sweetness.