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A Journey Through Indonesian Coffee

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The Indonesian territory stretches from west to east, with over 17,000 large and small islands scattered like jade along the Earth's equator. Her brilliance and charm are difficult to describe in mere words.

Indonesians never use filter cloth, filter paper, or filter cups when brewing coffee. A sip of coffee contains some coffee grounds, and they say that tasting coffee requires careful chewing, much like life.

Mandheling Coffee

When discussing Indonesian coffee, we must start with Mandheling from Sumatra Island.

Mandheling coffee is the most representative coffee bean variety from Indonesia. Anyone who loves coffee knows Mandheling. Mandheling is actually an ethnic minority living in the northern highlands of Sumatra Island. The origin of the Mandheling coffee name is related to Japan's invasion history. During World War II, when Japan occupied Indonesia, a Japanese soldier tasted an incredibly mellow coffee at a café and asked the owner for the coffee's name. The owner misunderstood and thought he was asking where he was from, so he replied: Mandheling. After the war, the Japanese soldier returned home and recalled the "Mandheling" he had in Indonesia. He then arranged to import 15 tons from Indonesia, which surprisingly became very popular. The name Mandheling thus spread.

The main producing areas of Mandheling are on Sumatra Island, while high-quality Mandheling is concentrated in the highland areas around Lake Toba in North Sumatra Province, as well as the Gayo Highlands around Lake Tawar in Aceh Province. Frequently mentioned coffee bean producing area names include Lintong Nihuta, Sidikalang, and Dolok Sanggul in the Lake Toba region, and Takengon in the Gayo region.

The ancient kingdom of Srivijaya mentioned in historical records had its capital in Palembang in the northeastern part of Sumatra Island. In conflicts with the later-rising Majapahit kingdom on Java Island, Srivijaya was defeated, moved its capital to Jambi, and was eventually destroyed by the Majapahit kingdom.

Aceh, also known as Aqi, was an Islamic kingdom that ruled northern Sumatra and parts of the Malay Peninsula from the early 16th century to the early 20th century. It was a trading center in the Malay Archipelago region. The capital Kota Raja (now Banda Aceh) was built by the Acehnese, hence the name. In the early 17th century, it reached its zenith. Its influence included the entire west coast of Sumatra and conquered many places in the Malay Peninsula. It later declined. It actively resisted colonial invasion when the Portuguese and Dutch invaded. In 1873, it was destroyed by the Dutch.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance, so here is a little-known historical episode. During the Republic of China era, the great literary figure Mr. Yu Dafu actively promoted anti-Japanese resistance during the war period. In 1940, he and a group of progressive writers who promoted anti-Japanese resistance exiled to Singapore and organized the "Singapore Overseas Chinese Volunteer Army" to resist Japan. When the Pacific War broke out in 1941, Singapore fell at the end of 1941. They then traveled to Bukittinggi on Sumatra Island in Indonesia, eventually settling in Payakumbuh. Yu Dafu and several fellow anti-Japanese fighters who were in exile here lived under assumed names, started a distillery for a living, Yu Dafu used the alias Zhao Lian, married and had children here (his third wife was He Liyou, a local Chinese), and waited for the situation to change. In early 1942, Japan invaded Indonesia, and the Dutch colonial rulers in Indonesia surrendered. Yu Dafu had studied in Japan in his early years and was proficient in Japanese. The Japanese military police in Bukittinggi learned that a local Chinese could speak Japanese, so they found Yu Dafu and forced him to serve as a translator. Yu Dafu's role as a Japanese translator caused many misunderstandings and dissatisfaction among local people. But in fact, during his tenure, Yu Dafu used his position to secretly rescue and protect many exiled friends, patriotic overseas Chinese leaders, and local residents. In 1945, Yu Dafu's true identity was discovered by the Japanese military. Several days after Japan's surrender, Yu Dafu was suddenly summoned by the Japanese military police and mysteriously disappeared. The cause of his disappearance remains an unsolved mystery to this day. Japanese scholar Suzuki Masao, after research and textual criticism, concluded that Yu Dafu was killed on the orders of the Japanese military police.

Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province, is the main distribution center for coffee on Sumatra Island. Another distribution center is the port city of Bandar Lampung in southeastern Sumatra Island. To travel to the Lake Toba producing area, although the distance is only over 200 kilometers, due to the lack of highways, it takes 5-6 hours to drive from Medan. Sidikalang, Dolok Sanggul, and Lintong are all in nearby areas. To travel to the Gayo producing area in Aceh Province, it's over 300 kilometers from the capital of Aceh Province, Banda Aceh, requiring 6-7 hours by car; it's over 400 kilometers from Medan, requiring over 10 hours by car.

Mandheling coffee is considered one of the richest and most mellow coffees in the world. When tasting Mandheling, you can feel a distinct smoothness on your tongue. It also has lower acidity, but this acidity can still be clearly tasted. The jumping micro-acidity mixes with the richest aroma, with a long sweet aftertaste, allowing you to easily experience the lively factors within the gentle richness. Additionally, Mandheling coffee has a faint earthy aroma, which some describe as the fragrance of herbal plants.

Indonesian Coffee Special Recommendations:

1. Mandheling G1

Mandheling G1 is a first-grade quality coffee bean that has undergone three manual selections. Mandheling has a very rich flavor, sweet fragrance, pure bitterness, and mellow richness, with a slight sweetness and micro-acidity, leaving a long aftertaste and resonance after drinking. Most general coffee lovers drink it as a single origin.

2. Mandheling Peaberry

Peaberry is commonly known as male bean. Usually, the coffee beans we see have one flat side with a crack groove, which is the side where the two seeds from the coffee cherry fruit are attached. These normal beans are called flat beans. Some cherry fruits contain only one seed, and these beans are called peaberries. About only 5-10% of the coffee cherries from each coffee tree are peaberries, which are picked out one by one from mixed coffee beans by hand, so their preciousness is self-evident. Additionally, because peaberry coffee contains the nutrients of two normal flat beans, its flavor is richer than that of general flat beans.

Mandheling peaberry has a dense flavor, with very obvious Chinese herbal medicine and brown sugar notes. The aroma is strong and persistent, the mouthfeel is heavy, the bitterness is relatively subdued, and the sweet aftertaste is long.

3. Long Berry Takengon

Long Berry Takengon is also known as horse-faced Mandheling or long-strip Mandheling. This bean variety is a Typica variant, with very low production, from the Takengon area in the Gayo region of Aceh Province, planted in small-scale plantations at altitudes above 1600 meters.

Horse-faced raw beans have a faint sweet fragrance when smelled, and the beans are long and full, very beautiful. Freshly roasted beans ground into powder have a dry aroma of preserves and dark plums. The coffee enters the mouth smoothly and roundly, with good balance and medium-to-high body. In the later stage, you can feel faint hazelnut and caramel flavors, with some plum fruit acidity aroma.

4. Aged Mandheling

Aged beans are generally stored in the place of origin with excellent storage conditions, placed in constant-temperature warehouses, so that after harvesting, they can continue to retain the best parts of the coffee. To ensure quality, farm owners must also occasionally turn the bags to allow each raw bean to have even contact with air and moisture. Additionally, aside from storage conditions, true aged beans must still be covered by parchment. If the parchment is removed at this time, the raw beans will easily deteriorate due to lack of protection, especially in the Sumatra region, where humid air and abundant sunlight can easily cause raw beans to deteriorate. Generally, the aging time for aged Mandheling varies from 3-5 years. After aging treatment, the acidity of coffee beans becomes weaker, the body increases, and the overall texture becomes fuller, completely different from the fresh, lively, and bright taste of new-season raw beans.

5. Wild Luwak Mandheling

Wild civets (Luwak) like to select the most mature, sweet, plump, and juicy coffee fruits from coffee trees as food. After the coffee fruits pass through their digestive system, only the fruit pulp on the outside is digested, while the hard coffee beans are subsequently excreted intact by the civet's digestive system. This digestive process causes unparalleled magical changes in the coffee beans, making the flavor unique and particularly mellow. The rich, round, and sweet mouthfeel is also incomparable to other coffee beans. This is because the Luwak's digestive system destroys the proteins in the coffee beans, reducing the bitterness caused by proteins and instead increasing the round mouthfeel of these coffee beans. Because wild Luwaks are clearly better at selecting good coffee fruits, this coffee has extraordinary characteristics. Wild civet coffee beans have extremely low production, so please note, the key word is "wild".

6. Mandheling Jumbo

This Jumbo bean is a special selection of large (size 19 and above) premium Mandheling coffee beans from Mandheling G1. It is the finest among Mandheling, with a richer aroma and long-lasting sweet aftertaste, with almost zero flaws.

It should be specially noted that most Mandheling Jumbo beans are purchased at high prices by Japanese bean merchants and rarely flow into the mainland Chinese market. The Indonesian bean varieties that Japanese people crazily pursue also include Mandheling Long Berry (horse-faced), Mandheling Peaberry, and Toraja coffee beans (introduced later in the article).

Java Coffee

Before the Japanese discovered Mandheling coffee, Java coffee was the only label for Indonesian coffee.

As the name suggests, Java coffee is produced on Java Island, with the main producing areas in West Java. The earliest coffee planting in Indonesia was in the eastern part of Jatinegara, which is now the Pondok Kopi area in East Jakarta. The name of this place literally translates to coffee house. As early as the mid-17th century, Dutch colonists transplanted coffee tree varieties here, and later gradually expanded planting to other places in West Java, such as Bogor, Sukabumi, Banten, East Java region, and so on, eventually expanding to other islands like Sumatra Island, Sulawesi Island, Bali Island, etc. Simply put, Java planted coffee over 200 years earlier than Sumatra Island.

At that time, Java coffee sold to Europe was a very special coffee. Because it was transported to European and American countries by sailing ships, the journey was long and the speed was slow, so a lot of time was spent on the transportation route. Under such circumstances, the coffee seemed to undergo a special fermentation, making its flavor very unique. Later, when steamships replaced sailing ships, due to shorter transportation times, people drank relatively fresher coffee beans. But people accustomed to aged beans were not used to this fresh taste, so they desperately sought aged Java coffee, to the extent that the Indonesian government and some merchants deliberately stored fresh beans in warehouses for one to two years before selling them to consumers. In fact, compared to fresh beans, aged Java beans have reduced acidity to near zero, while the aroma becomes richer.

Today, the large coffee plantations on Java Island are mainly concentrated in the Ijen Plateau, more than 200 kilometers from Surabaya, the eastern city of Java Island.

Toraja Coffee

Toraja is an ethnic minority living in the Tanah Toraja area in the central highlands of Sulawesi Island. Sulawesi was formerly known as Celebes. The Toraja people are a very distinctive ethnic group who still maintain many original customs and traditions. Boat houses, hanging coffins - it is said they are descendants of an invading people who assimilated or eliminated the aboriginal inhabitants when they ruled the island. Later they were driven away by Muslim Indonesians (such as the Bugis people) and left the coast to settle in the highland mountain areas. They are fierce and warlike, and to avoid disturbances from other ethnic groups, they built their villages in easily defensible highlands.

Due to being located in highlands with extremely inconvenient transportation, most Toraja coffee beans are processed by farmers after harvesting using the traditional Indonesian wet-hulling method. They use simple fruit depulpers to remove the cherry pulp, the coffee beans fall into a water basin for soaking, then are packed in plastic bags for fermentation, followed by so-called parchment drying. After drying (moisture content between 11-13%), they are transported from the mountainous producing areas to Kalosi at the foot of the mountains, sold to intermediaries or processing plants for subsequent processing and refinement, so the Kalosi area has become an important coffee distribution center. This is also why some people call Toraja coffee Kalosi coffee.

Due to being located in highland mountain areas with extremely backward infrastructure and very inconvenient transportation, Toraja coffee bean production is not high. Japanese bean merchants who have long been stationed in the local area have acquired most of the high-quality Toraja coffee beans. For this reason, high-quality Toraja coffee rarely has the opportunity to flow into the mainland Chinese market.

In addition to the visible dark green appearance of Toraja raw beans, the flavor presents low acidity, thick mouthfeel, and gentle, long fruit flavors, highlighting the unique characteristics of Sulawesi Toraja coffee that distinguish it from Sumatra Mandheling. The mild acidity carries some ripe grape notes, with a clean yet solid mouthfeel, and in the later stage, an overwhelming caramel sweetness surges up, lingering in the mouth.

Papua Coffee

Papua Island, also known as Irian Island, is located at the easternmost part of Indonesia. The middle of the island is divided by a straight line, with the west belonging to Indonesian territory and the east being the independent Republic of Papua New Guinea.

Papua has fertile land and abundant resources, making it a coveted prize for Western colonial powers. The division of the island by a line in the middle is the result of negotiations between Western powers after their struggles since the 17th century. The detailed history is complex and bloody. Those interested in in-depth research can search for relevant historical materials online, which will not be elaborated here.

Most of Papua is covered by dense primeval forests with extremely rich mineral resources. Calculated by average area, New Guinea has the most bird species in the world. In Papua's forests live various rare wild animals and many precious plants unique to the world. Although this province has only over two million people, it has many ethnic groups, with over 250 confirmed local ethnic groups, most of whom are primitive tribes living in the jungle.

Papua has a hot climate with abundant rainfall. However, due to monsoon influences, northwest winds prevail from January to April, while from May to August it is controlled by southeast trade winds. In coastal low-lying areas, the average temperature change throughout the year is not significant, but there are still glaciers and snow in high mountain areas. Annual precipitation in the southern coastal areas is about 1000-2000 mm, while in the northern coastal areas it is 2500-3000 mm, and in the central mountainous areas it can reach 3000-4000 mm. Soil affected by high temperatures and abundant rainfall is easily eroded and washed away, with vigorous leaching and low fertility. Only mountain basins with thicker sedimentary soil and areas with fertile volcanic soil are suitable for agricultural development. With the influence of regional climate differences and altitude changes, the vertical distribution of vegetation is very obvious: coastal low-lying areas below 1000 meters altitude are mainly tropical rainforests, with numerous plant species, dense forests that are evergreen throughout the year, with particularly lush climbing plants. In high mountain areas above 3500 meters grow ferns, alpine meadows, and even cold temperate plants like mosses and lichens. Above 4400 meters is the permanent snow zone. Wild animals also have various different species according to regional differences in climate and plant distribution.

The growing areas of Papua coffee are mostly in the highland areas at altitudes of 1300-1800 meters in the central part of the island. Its flavor characteristics are full beans, varied taste changes, with pleasant acidity and fruit-like sweetness. Papua coffee beans have the same rich and mellow taste as Mandheling series beans, but the difference is that the coffee flavor cleanliness is much better than Mandheling series beans, and the sweetness presents a refreshing quality, different from the syrupy taste of Mandheling series beans, more similar to the cocoa and chocolate flavors of American beans.

Flores Coffee

Flores Island is located southeast of Bali Island and belongs to East Nusa Tenggara Province.

The territory is mountainous, especially in the west. Among them, Poco Mandasawu Peak has an altitude of 2,400 meters; there are some active volcanoes in the central and eastern parts. Nearby Mount Kelimutu, which means "mountain of three-colored lakes." The interior is little developed, rivers are not navigable, and vegetation is mostly tropical deciduous forest and savanna. The western end of the island was originally the habitat of a large lizard species, the Komodo dragon. The indigenous people here are mainly mixed-race of Malays and Papuans. Along various coasts live Bimanese, Sumbanese, Sumbawanese, Bugis, Makassar, Solorese, Minangkabau, as well as Javanese and very few Chinese. Most people still believe in traditional animist religions, with Muslims and Christians in coastal areas. Land generally belongs to tribes, and chiefs have great power. Flores agriculture is mainly based on crop rotation, with main crops being rice, coconuts, and coffee.

Flores started planting coffee relatively late, mostly with Tim-Tim varieties, which are natural hybrids of Arabica coffee trees and Robusta coffee trees. This variety was discovered on Timor Island in the 1940s and cultivated due to its natural disease resistance. Today this variety has also been widely planted on Sumatra Island. It would be inappropriate to describe it with the saying "southern oranges become trifoliate oranges when planted north," because the same tree variety, when planted in different places, exhibits different richness and sweetness in flavor.

This coffee bean has obvious earthy smell in taste, with slightly inferior cleanliness, but its richness exceeds that of ordinary Mandheling varieties, with a deep flavor, which is actually very similar to most Mandheling. It has good sweetness, with a heavy caramel taste in the aftertaste, which becomes more obvious and recognizable as the temperature decreases.

In this article, we have not mentioned Kalimantan Island, Bali Island, or Timor Estate. East Timor is now an independent country, so if there's an opportunity in the future, it will be introduced in a separate article.

Indonesian Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

The Indonesian coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee - [West Java Honey Process Coffee] have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, the price-performance ratio is extremely high. A half-pound (227g) package costs only about 118 yuan. Calculated at 15g of powder per cup of coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 7 yuan. Compared to the dozens of yuan per cup sold in coffee shops, this is a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473