The story
Indonesia is a chain of thousands of islands, and coffee grows on many of them. Dutch colonists brought the plant in the 1600s, and the Dutch East India Company began exporting it in the early 1700s, according to the importer Cafe Imports. Java was the first island to grow it, which is why "java" became a slang word for coffee. Typica plants reached Sulawesi around 1750.
The early plantations were Dutch-owned, and the people who worked on them were badly treated. In the 1860s and 1870s a disease called coffee leaf rust wiped out much of the crop. Many estates were abandoned and broken up, and workers took over small plots. They replanted much of the land with Robusta and with hardier hybrid plants. That history explains why most Indonesian coffee today comes from smallholders, often working about one hectare. Taken together, Indonesia is the fourth-largest coffee producer in the world, Cafe Imports says.
Each island has its own regions:
- Sumatra is the best known. Its main arabica areas are Aceh, around Gayo and Takengon in the north, and Lintong in North Sumatra.
- Java grows coffee on the Ijen Plateau in the east, where a few large estates still buy, grade and blend smallholders' cherries.
- Sulawesi grows coffee in Tana Toraja, Enrekang, Mamasa and nearby areas.
- Bali grows it mainly in the Kintamani highlands, between volcanoes. Farmers there are organised in groups called Subak Abian.
- Flores, a long volcanic island further east, grows coffee in Manggarai, Bajawa and Kelimutu, mostly at 1,000 to 1,300 metres.
How it's processed
A coffee bean is the seed of a small fruit called a cherry. Under the seed's pulp sits a thin papery shell called parchment. In most countries, the parchment stays on until the bean is fully dried, and only then is it removed.
Indonesia is known for doing this differently. The method is called wet-hulling, or giling basah in Indonesian. It works like this:
1. A farmer picks the cherries and removes the skin and pulp, usually by hand at home. 2. The beans dry for only a short time, then go to a market or a collector while still very wet. 3. The collector removes the parchment while the beans still hold a lot of water. Cafe Imports puts this at 30 to 50 percent moisture; Coffee Review says 20 to 40 percent. 4. The bare beans are then dried down to about 11 to 13 percent before export.
Why do it this way? Sumatra gets heavy rain and cloud for much of the year. Without the parchment, beans dry faster on tarps or patios. Cafe Imports says the method spread in the 1970s, when Japanese buyers grew interested in Sumatran coffee. It also gives the green beans an unusual bluish-green colour.
Wet-hulling is not the only option. In Sulawesi, Cafe Imports' partner exporter encourages fully washed coffees, where the fruit is removed and the beans dry inside their parchment. Bali and Flores produce washed and natural (dried in the whole cherry) coffees, and some producers in Sumatra are trying washed lots too.
What it tastes like
Sumatran coffee is often described as earthy, savoury and a little herbal. Cafe Imports links much of this to wet-hulling, along with the climate and the plant varieties. Coffee Review suggests the beans pick up a faint mustiness during the long, stop-start drying, which reads as earthiness.
That earthiness does not have to dominate. Coffee Review notes that wet-hulling has been refined over the years, so in better lots the earth note sits in the background. Its tasters compare it to moist fallen leaves, pipe tobacco, cedar, or spices like clove and pink peppercorn, with fruit or floral notes, sweet acidity and a silky to syrupy feel. Some Sumatras show grapefruit-like citrus; others are closer to chocolate, apricot or raisin.
Washed coffees taste different. Cafe Imports describes Sulawesi's washed lots as more acidic and fruity, with clarity and a creamy body.
Indonesian coffee is also half of the old "Mocha Java" blend, which paired Javanese coffee with coffee from Yemen. As with any origin, the island, the processing and the roast all shape the cup, so the tasting notes on each coffee are the best guide.