5kg - Indonesia Old Brown Java (OBJ) 6 Year Aged

Origin: Indonesia

Region: Java

Town: Various

Owner: Various Smallholders

Washing Station: Various

Varietal: Andung Sari, Ateng, Linie S-795/Jember, Sigarar Utang, Timtim

Altitude: 1100-1700 masl

Harvest: April - August

Processing: Wet Hulled & Aged

Tasting Notes: Heavy body, earthy dark notes with red wine, cedarwood and mollasses.

Indonesian coffee is often frowned upon for its peculiar tastes. When judged from the frame of reference from clear Central American coffees, this might be no surprise. But when you set aside the taste reference of other origins, that’s when you can truly appreciate the typical deep, rustic and often sweet tastes of Indonesian countries.

The country has the perfect growing conditions of height, fertile soils and temperature, albeit with a troublesome humid climate. Because it consists of about 17,500 islands, the country has a fascinating biodiversity with various microclimates. Yet, even though the country has a long history in coffee and in colonial times was a pioneer in coffee production, nowadays Indonesia isn’t quite renowned for producing top-notch coffees. Unrightfully, we think, because the archipelago harbors quite some coffee gems with very diverse and intriguing flavors. 

History 

On the historical trajectory of coffee out of Yemen, Indonesia was coffee’s second stop, after India. Coffee was introduced into Indonesia in colonial times by the Dutch governor in Malabar, India. In 1696 he sent a seedling of Coffea Arabica to the Dutch governor of Batavia, the present-day Jakarta. The first seedlings failed to grow due to flooding, so a second shipment of seedlings was sent. The second attempt was a success and in 1711 the first Indonesian coffee was exported from Java to Europe by the Dutch East India Company, or VOC. Exports rose to 60 tons per year. From 1725 to 1780 coffee trading was monopolized by the VOC. The coffee trade was very profitable for the Company, but less so for the Indonesian farmers who were forced to grow it by the colonial government and who were paid too low prices for the coffee. Mid-19th century, the Dutch East Indies expanded arabica coffee growing areas in Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi and Timor. In North Sumatra highlands coffee was first grown near Lake Toba, and later on in the Gayo highland near Lake Laut Tawar. In the late eighteen hundreds, large coffee plantations were established on the Ijen Plateau in eastern Java.  

However, disaster struck in 1876, when the coffee rust disease swept through Indonesia, wiping out most of the Typica cultivar. Coffee rust is a fungus that creates the growth of a fine yellow-orange powder-like substance that starts on the underside of the leaves of the plants and that can wipe out entire plantations. The Dutch responded by importing and planting Liberica plants, but the species was also affected by disease. The Dutch colonial government then opted for the more resistant Robusta variety to replant the affected plantations. The varieties Ateng, a Catimor-derived cultivar, and TimTim, a hybrid with a Robusta gen base, were used as well for their resistance to leaf rust. 

In the 1920s smallholders throughout Indonesia began to grow coffee as a cash crop. World War II and the struggle for independence played a big part in subsequent changes in the Indonesian coffee market. Plantations were taken over briefly by the occupying Japanese. After independence, the plantations throughout Indonesia either came under the control of the new government or were abandoned. Many colonial plantation owners fled the country to avoid being arrested. The plantations on Java were nationalized at independence and revitalized with new varieties of Coffea arabica in the 1950s.  

Today, more than 90% of Indonesia’s coffee is grown by smallholders or cooperatives on farms averaging one hectare or less. Much of the production is organic and 19 farmers’ cooperatives and exporters are internationally certified to market organic coffee. Robusta still accounts for the largest part of the coffee production, about 90%, but various arabica species can be found on the archipelago as well, with more than 20 commercially grown varieties of Coffea arabica. 

Growing conditions 

The country covers 1,904,569 km2 of land area, with over 18,000 islands of which about 6,000 have been named and of which even less are inhabited. Indonesia’s main islands are Sumatra (473,606 sq km), Sulawesi (189,216 sq km), Papua (421,981 sq km), Kalimantan (539,460 sq km), Java (132,187 sq km). These are also the main coffee growing islands (except for Kalimantan), as they have the altitudes needed for growing quality coffee. 

The coastal regions of the islands consist of swampy plains, whereas the center of the islands are formed by windy plateaus and mountainous volcanic regions. Lying along the equator, Indonesia has a tropical climate, with normally speaking two distinct monsoonal wet and dry seasons. Average annual rainfall in the lowlands varies from 1,780–3,175 millimeters, and up to 6,100 millimeters in mountainous regions. Mountainous areas – particularly in the west coast of Sumatra, West Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua – receive the highest rainfall. Humidity is generally high, averaging about 80%. Temperatures vary little throughout the year; the average daily temperature range of Jakarta is 26–30 C. 

Wet-hulled process 

Indonesia has a typical way of processing its coffee. The wet-hulled process, or Giling basah in Bahasa, is different from the fully washed process in the way the coffee is handled after pulping. In wet-processing a farm would slowly dry pulped and fermented coffee for days or weeks, usually on a patio or raised bed, or sometimes in a mechanical dryer, down to 10-11.5 % moisture. In this process, the green bean would become the small dried seed we know. The thin parchment shell is removed, preparing the coffee for export. Wet-hulled coffee is also pulped after picking. Next, it is fermented to break down the fruit layer. After overnight fermentation, the mucilage can be washed off. What’s left is wet parchment coffee, with the bean in the parchment layer swollen with water. The clean wet parchment coffee is dried for a few hours until it has about 50% moisture content, after which it is sold to a collector middleman or delivered to a mill. The mill might dry the coffee a little bit more, but in general, they send it to a special machine (the wet-huller) when the coffee still has 25-35% moisture content. This machine uses a lot of friction to take the tightly-attached parchment layer and tear it from the water-swollen green bean, which at this stage is often white and looks nothing like the green bean we finally see. Then the coffee is laid out to dry, unprotected by any outer layer, on a patio, on a tarp, on the road. Drying without the shell is rapid, so the mill is able to sell the coffee and get paid with rapidity. The rapid drying is also a way of dealing with the climate conditions. The high humidity and heavy rains makes drying coffee a hard and long task, so wet-hulling coffees makes the life of a coffee producer a bit easier. However, this process entails quite some risks for the beans, as they are dried without their protective parchment layer and can easily be affected by dirt or other elements in the drying process. 

The wet-hulled process imparts the coffee a peculiar flavor profile: low acidity, thick body, and rustic flavors which, in other origins, could easily be described as defects.