As one of the most recognizable origins in the coffee world, Java has a mystique about it that stands out in the global cannon of coffee, but it can be difficult to find specialty coffees that consistently compete with those from Africa and the Americas. Although Indonesia is the world’s 10^th largest coffee producer, about 90 percent of Indonesian coffees produced today are of the Robusta species, commonly used for commercial-grade coffee and generally known for lack of complexity and pronounced bitterness. The Arabica species, more typically grown at the specialty level, represent a relatively small portion of the country’s exports, and we hadn’t found a coffee from Indonesia that met our standards for quality, flavor, and transparency…until now! We are very pleased to bring you our first Indonesian coffee, Kopi Argapura, from the island of Java.

This coffee comes to us through our friends at Sustainable Harvest in Portland, Oregon, who’ve been at the forefront of sustainably sourced coffees since their inception over two decades ago. They work with smallholder farms, like the one in Java where this coffee was sourced, to responsibly produce very high-quality coffee from unique local varietals, like Lini S795 and Kartika in this case.

In addition to being our first Indonesian coffee, Kopi Argapura is also our first honey process coffee. Many coffee lovers are familiar with the two predominant ways to process coffee – the ‘washed’ process and the ‘natural’ process. In a washed coffee, the pulp (skin), fruit, and mucilage surrounding the coffee bean are removed from the coffee cherry after it is picked. The seeds (coffee beans) are then washed and fermented in tanks and then dried. In a natural process, coffee is dried with the skin and flesh of the coffee fruit (cherry) still on it, which is what imparts natural coffees with their fruity, sweet, and complex flavor profiles. In the honey process, which is somewhere in between, the pulp and fruit are removed from the coffee cherry, but the thin layer of mucilage is left on. The mucilage surrounding the bean inside the fruit tends to be sticky, and thus is sometimes compared to honey. The honey processing uses less water than a fully washed coffee and can be less challenging to ferment than natural coffees in Indonesia’s moist coastal climate. This process can also impart balanced acidity and body and fruity sweetness to the coffee.

This coffee really demonstrates the brightness, sweetness, and balance that honey processed coffees are known for, as well as the distinctive chocolate finish Indonesian coffees are known for. We’re very excited about this one, and we hope you enjoy it too!

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Espresso: 19g in, 42-43g out @ 27-28 sec