Indonesia 2021 First Cup of Excellence Competition Results Announced

Traditional Indonesian Coffee Characteristics

Previously, the most representative Indonesian coffees were Mandheling, Kopi Luwak, and Java coffee. All were characterized by strong bitter notes.

Indonesia's First Cup of Excellence (COE) Competition

In 2021, Indonesia held its first COE (Cup of Excellence). The Cup of Excellence is the most prestigious coffee auction, designed to select high-quality beans from member producing countries each year. The selected coffees are endorsed by professional cuppers from around the world, with coffees scoring above 87 points (30 slots) chosen for global auction. The competition promotes the development of coffee quality in producing countries.

If that's unclear, one simple way to understand it: hosting a COE competition fully demonstrates that a producing country can produce internationally recognized specialty coffee. (Don't read this in reverse; some producing countries that don't host COE can still produce internationally recognized specialty coffee, such as Panama, which has its own green bean competition, BOP.)

Indonesia's first COE competition in 2021 also meant it officially became the 14th COE hosting country. COE is closely tied to specialty coffee. In the past, when people talked about specialty coffee, Indonesia always stayed quiet, because neither its coffee varieties, growing altitude, nor cultivation levels were considered advantages. When Indonesia's Mandheling and Kopi Luwak were world-famous, the concept of specialty coffee had not yet spread widely. You could say Indonesian coffee was good coffee of the old era, but it doesn't count as today's specialty coffee.

Distinctive Flavor Profile of Indonesian Coffee

Indonesian coffee is often described with herbaceous, spicy, wild, rich, earthy, and unique aromatic flavors. It's genuinely a single-origin bean with distinct regional character. Among the coffees we drink in shops, at least, Indonesian coffee is the easiest to recognize, because that unique spice and herbaceous aroma can't be imitated by other beans.

The Impact of COE on Indonesian Coffee Flavor

Why say that Indonesia hosting COE might mean there will be no more bitter single-origin coffee in the future? Let's first look at the flavor descriptions of the award-winning beans.

A total of 26 beans were selected, but since there are too many, only some representative images are shown here. These are the 1st, 2nd, 10th, and 26th place winners. The first and second places show the level of Indonesia's best coffee in 2021. The credibility of COE is quite high: first place scored 89.82 points and second place 89.04 points, neither exceeding 90, which also reflects the true situation of Indonesian coffee.

Analysis of Award-Winning Coffee Flavor Profiles

Second, observe the flavor descriptions of these selected beans. The descriptions include Indonesian coffee's characteristic flavors of "spice, clove, chocolate, wild," but also some fruit flavors like "cranberry, orange, cherry." This differs somewhat from the Indonesian coffee we typically encounter.

Third, observe the flavor descriptions across rankings. Higher-ranked coffees tend to have descriptions leaning toward acidic fruit notes, while lower-ranked coffees lean toward fruity sweetness and sugar notes. FrontStreet Coffee speculates this relates to the acidity category in COE scoring. It also shows that in the current mainstream scoring system, coffees lacking acidity are at a disadvantage.

Future Outlook for Indonesian Coffee

Indonesia is the fourth-largest coffee-producing country and the most representative producer of bitter coffee. Hosting a COE shows Indonesia's intention to move toward specialty coffee, and it can promote local cultivation enthusiasm and guide specialty coffee cultivation concepts. But it also shows the trend of flavor transition in Indonesian coffee, a process that will take at least 10 years.

Perhaps we're worrying unnecessarily; after all, doesn't a certain internationally famous coffee chain insist on dark roast coffee? But looking back 40 years, the entire world was drinking dark roast coffee, and those of us born today are simply in the middle of this quiet transformation.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Indonesia's classic character lives on in the wet-hulled coffees that made it famous. FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia PWN Golden Mandheling is the benchmark of a good Mandheling. Produced by Indonesia's PWN company to strict standards, it's built on beans of 18 screen size and above, with fewer than 3 defective beans per 300g green sample to meet the highest G1 grade, then sorted by hand three times to remove any remaining defects. That rigor yields a cleaner mouthfeel and more intense sweetness. Dark roasted, it carries rich roasting aroma, a clean cup, and a full body, ideal for anyone who doesn't like acidic coffee.

If you want the wilder side of Sumatra, FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling delivers a thick, heavy cup with distinctive earthy and herbal notes. Wet-hulled and medium-dark roasted, it's low in acidity with a spicy, minty character and a strong, persistent sweetness. For a hand-poured Golden Mandheling, FrontStreet suggests a water temperature of 87-88°C, 15g of grounds, a 1:15 ratio, a coarse-sugar grind, and a three-stage pour to bring out the full body and caramel sweetness.