Coffee

[Bob]

Requesting help again, does anyone know a shop in Jakarta that sells a good selection of single source coffees from around Indonesia? South or Central Jakarta is ideal but I'll travel for good coffee.

 

[jstar]

Coffee Tree outside of MOI.

 

[Brian86]

Common Grounds, Tanamera, and Anomali are good chains around Jakarta. There are also dozens more cafes with only one or two locations that are excellent; use google maps around your area.

 

[Vulgarian]

Are you looking for a place to buy a cup of coffee, or a place to buy beans for home use? If it's the latter, I've been very happy with Philocoffee - https://www.tokopedia.com/philocoff...gdo5MxYGFDXRhGiXE4-YdJ38zGyIMplXgd-LKln-2fyX7

 

[Bob]

Are you looking for a place to buy a cup of coffee, or a place to buy beans for home use? If it's the latter, I've been very happy with Philocoffee - https://www.tokopedia.com/philocoff...gdo5MxYGFDXRhGiXE4-YdJ38zGyIMplXgd-LKln-2fyX7

Mainly beans for home use, thank you.

 

[Vulgarian]

They're a good fit then - a wide range of single origin beans from around the country (zero imports though), well roasted, and at good prices. They shut down their cafe over covid, unfortunately, and have been online since.

 

[jstar]

Coffee Tree outside of MOI.

Last time I was there, they sold 16 different local beans. Quite a nice single source selection.

I prefer to see - and smell ! - what I buy. Owner is also helpful.

 

[LRB]

All good suggestions, but I can elaborate with some ideas. I'll exclude the chains mentioned but I agree that they all offer good coffee at a good price and kill in the quality department when compared to something like Staryucks. If you are happy with regular, repeatable, decent and affordable, stick to the suggestions above. If you want to join the dark side of coffee geekism, read my nerdgasm of links below haha.

I roast my own beans at home and have a bit of an obsession for Indonesian specialty coffee culture because it is amazing and really inspired me in this hobby. I sometimes buy beans from fancy roasters but will try to keep this to the best roasters in each category (that I am making up as I go along), but if you dive deep, you will find many more! Note, these are all over Indonesia, if you order online, higher quality is available for a lower price from roasters in Semarang, Jogja, Solo, Surabaya, Bandung etc. Also a good idea to keep an eye on Jacoweek announcements, that event is always arranged last minute but is incredible in scope and attracts roasters from Singapore and other parts of Asia as well as an amazing range of local roasters from all over the archipelago.


Best places to find green beans:

IIT Coffee (Beans from all over the world)

Coffee Beyond Borders (Beans from all over the world)

Catur Coffee (local beans mostly - some partnerships where Indonesians cooperate with farms in Brazil and Panama but those are expensive)

Klasik Beans (local beans)

Lohas Beans (Colombian only - mostly exotic varieties like gesha, pink bourbon, tabi, sidra etc.)

Churumpaco (Panama only, very expensive but lots of 90+ coffees)



Interesting Small Batch Roasters:

Panna (one man operation from Semarang. Has a slow bar but sporadic opening times)

Koffiesome (Damaring Kalpika 2017 Indonesia Aeropress Champ - really small scale)

Koeslan Coffee (2022 Indonesian Coffee Roasting Champion based in Solo)

Fugol Coffee (small scale and compete in international barista competitions)

Herd Coffee (another Bandung roaster that kill it and sometimes have capsules. Has a slow bar under a different name)

JB Coffee (weird funky processed coffees. Also have green. Test your palette here)

Anjiru (Small operation in Jogja. Roast local and foreign coffees really well)

Selective (Skilled Roaster based in Jakarta)

Wisanggeni (has a small coffee space in Cilandak called Tiger Cub, has a tea brand called Tigress Tea with interesting tea and tisane blends)


Roasters with a Good Range:

Gustavo (good local coffees and some international exotics, decent espresso roasts, high prices)

Curious People (good range, good value, Jakarta prices)

Space (always has interesting coffees. Cafe caters towards smokers predominantly. OG of the Jogja scene)

Hayati (My fave cafe in Jogja. Employs lady baristas. Good value beans from a skilled roaster)

TBRK (roaster based in Surabaya. Excellent range of local and foreign beans)

Tatido (Based in Batam. Always has a range of interesting coffees)


Roasters with Capsules/Good Espresso Forward Roasts:

Titik Temu (Has classy cafes in Jakarta. Good espresso. Good capsules)

Smoking Barrels (Good cafe in Jakarta; Good espresso coffees; Good tea brand as well. Expensive but premium in feel)

Wheels (Excellent Cafes in Bandung. Good coffees. 500g bags at excellent prices)

Coffeenatics (Based in Medan. Interesting capsules and espresso range)

People Temple Roastery (Based in Tangerang. Small scale. Quite interesting)

Expat (Specialty coffee OG in Bali. Tourist prices. Pretty good quality);

Tenun (interesting espresso blends. has espresso bars in Jakarta);

Super Fancy Beans:

Kopi Relo (Works with local farmers to provide access to auction lots and competition coffees. Based in Jogja)

Instinct (Champions female baristas. Amazing exotic coffees. Great slow bar in Alam Sutera)

Onward (very talented roaster. Small batches. Very skilled with exotic coffees)

Omakafe (Cafe of 2024 World Barista Champ. Fine dining style specialty coffee)

Moodmaker (Excellent local coffees. Very skilled roaster)

A Roastworks (Super high quality. Super high prices. The Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood of Indonesia)

Beans Corp (One man operation in PIK. Good Ethiopian coffees. Sometimes has exotics. High prices)

Ordinary Roastworks (Not at all ordinary prices. Very expensive but really good quality.)


Note: All observations are subject to my personal biases and buying experiences. I like light roasts. All errors in info are unintentional and my own.

 

[Vulgarian]

Nice! I'll have to get out of my bubble and check some of these out. Thanks for the info, and fly your nerd flag proud!

 

[LRB]

Nice! I'll have to get out of my bubble and check some of these out. Thanks for the info, and fly your nerd flag proud!

haha can't hide it any more. If anyone does encounter anything new and interesting, please do share! I also know a few tea companies and even a specialty hot chocolate one now, but those aren't the topic of this thread hehe. Hope that knowledge is useful

 

[fastpitch17]

Requesting help again, does anyone know a shop in Jakarta that sells a good selection of single source coffees from around Indonesia? South or Central Jakarta is ideal but I'll travel for good coffee.

Define single source please.

 

[jstar]

The thing with many coffee brands as Lavazza, Illy, Douwe Egberts, Nescafe, etc. is, that they often combine beans. So in those products you can get coffee from Columbia, Ethiopia and Vietnam for instance, combined.

In fact that’s not necessarily bad. The people working at these companies have sharp noses and extremely good developed and well trained taste buds. So they can make a mix which is consistent so that the consumer gets no surprise. With a single origin a coffee can be rather different every time. And then we don’t even consider the harvesting, processing, storage, etc. It’s all a bit like wine or whiskey.

 

[Bob]

Define single source please.

Good point. Grown in one place, not a blend. Like Banyuatis, Kamojang, Argopura, etc.

 

[fastpitch17]

Good point. Grown in one place, not a blend. Like Banyuatis, Kamojang, Argopura, etc.

So, Aceh Gayo, Mandahline, and Kitamany would be single source whereas Lampung, since grown from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, different climates, different soils, would not be considered single source. The first three are readily available.

Of course the question always lingers. Is what is in the package the same as it's claim? I could go out and buy a truckload of Lampung Robusta bean, roast then in various degrees and package them pretty and put whatever name I wanted on them and sell at a premium.

 

[LRB]

So, Aceh Gayo, Mandahline, and Kitamany would be single source whereas Lampung, since grown from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, different climates, different soils, would not be considered single source. The first three are readily available.

Of course the question always lingers. Is what is in the package the same as it's claim? I could go out and buy a truckload of Lampung Robusta bean, roast then in various degrees and package them pretty and put whatever name I wanted on them and sell at a premium.

"Single origin" is the most common term used. There is no industry standard for the use of the term internationally though because the resources available to coffee farms is different in each area. This is a vague term akin to something like "fair trade" where criteria for certification may not actually be as ethical as it sounds. However, there is some promise in the coffee industry in specialty cafes.

For example, at the moment I have some "oleh2" from a friend that went to the states in the summer. He gifted me some beans from a famous roaster called "Sey Coffee" from Brooklyn, New York. In the images below, you will see the price that the roaster paid to the producers at "origin". The yellow/orange colored card shows a the prices paid to the "Danche" producer's wash station. Usually in Ethiopia, local smallholders would combine their lots to form enough to sell in bulk and share the profits. The pinkish colored card shows the information for a coffee that is very specifically sourced from a single farmer named Ricardo Silva in Colombia. Even the varietal is listed. Coffee infrastructure in places like Colombia or Panama is a lot more sophisticated than it is in East Africa in places like Ethiopia or Kenya. The exception to that rule perhaps being Rwanda where most farms and cooperatives produce the 'red bourbon' varietal. Roasters like Sey, at least make the effort to appear transparent. It would seem like a wasted effort to publish this information and lie, it is no doubt verifiable by researching the farms, estates and cooperatives that they source their coffee from.

In Indonesia, the situation is perhaps somewhere between the two examples discussed above. The infrastructure here is quite sophisticated and spread across the archipelago. However, farms in Aceh, West Sumatra, West Java and East Java seem to have the most sophisticated infrastructure. Somewhere like Flores, while still having excellent quality coffee often, tends to describe coffees using a general region rather than a specific farm. Some estates, such as the Frinsa Estate (West Java) or the Argopuro Estate (East Java) produce enough coffee to sell their own green beans directly on Tokopedia. Smallholders in Flores tend to rely on smallholder alliances such as Tuang Coffee that sells beans from different municipalities (e.g. Colol, Uwu, Mbohang and Biting). Thus, the use of the term single origin does not have one definition and can mean different things in different places and sometimes within the same place. Terms like "Aceh Gayo" are not specific and refer to an entire mountain range. Those beans could be from farms in Kenawat, Ribang, Arkhan, Avatara or Gilbas etc. Where as coffee labeled "Avatara" comes from one of the farms owned by Hendra Maulana. Kintamani and Mandheling are also broader terms that act as an umbrella to cover many producers in such a region (North Bali and North Sumatra respectively).

Of course, it is reasonable to harbor a certain amount of skepticism when dealing with specialty coffee. Local roasters in Jakarta don't disclose the fees that they pay producers for their green beans in the manner that Sey does. However, with Tuang, Catur, Klasik Beans, Frinsa and Argopuro, you at least know that the option is there to buy directly from the source at origin if you want to. You can pick up a serviceable home roaster on Tokped for as little as 2 juta when stocks are available, I believe the brand Cafemasy is the most reputable budget option at that price. Failing that, coffee can be roasted in small batches in a sauce pan with a whisk. Kinda fun if you have the window open but not really recommended for repeatable results. Of course, there is also potential for fraud and lies to be used in marketing. However, with prices in specialty cafes here often being cheaper than places like Starbucks, I'd rather give my money to a small business owner that appears to be building stronger farm-roaster/cafe relations than to a middle entity like Starbucks that burns the crap out of everything and then puts it in a fancy package.

I hope that went some way towards answering your question. With many business sectors in Indonesia, things are always more complicated than they perhaps need to be. That said, plenty of local roasters are doing good things with the amazing beans on offer here.

 

[willinglyjohn_]

You could check it out here I usually buy here https://www.tokopedia.com/javafrinsaestate/product or https://eatandtreats.blogspot.com/2014/01/giyanti-coffee-roastery-jakarta.html but if you travel better ask for you local guide like this https://gowithguide.com/Indonesia they have more better suggestion and better knowledge if you visited.

 

[centurion]

Good point. Grown in one place, not a blend. Like Banyuatis, Kamojang, Argopura, etc.

We have a connoisseur here.