More often than not when I am home, I buy fresh beans and explore unique coffee places where they sell more than just milk with coffee. In these places you can explore coffee that is more than just Arabica and Robusta. Some of these places, despite its humble look, offer lesser known varieties such as liberica and excelsa.

Anyhow, it is fun to make coffee at home as I can make in big batches or brew the coffee just the way I like. At the same time, brewing coffee with v60 can feel quite therapeutic and especially when it’s done in the morning or the afternoon.

I think this year when I was in laos, I got so inspired with appreciating a simple thing in coffee brewing. Processing a coffee doesn’t have to be fancy to make it heavenly. Swayed by the simplicity of the cafe I went to daily, I began to look at brewing methods differently. The place was small but always packed and the coffee was always good. I had ‘japanese’ v60 method almost everyday after my usual morning cappuccino that I love because of the latte art. The coffee selection wasn’t really limited but still compared to Indonesia, it was fairly tiny.

Since I came back home and found more coffee labs around, I finally began to see that the coffee industry in the country is advancing. They are now speaking in foreign language that if you’re not a coffee expert, you might not know what they’re talking about.

For some people, coffee is just coffee but for these people, it is more than just coffee.

For these people, they delve into each cup from the soil to the processing method until it reaches our cup. It's more than just a liquid gold. There are layers to it and so many variables at play that could affect flavor profile, mouthfeel, and even acidity as well as complexity and nuances of it. You can be expert at roasting but also mediocre at latte art or the other way round. And that's OK.

At the same time, while exploring these different Indonesian coffees, I keep enjoying the simplicity of brewing methods & now would prefer that way especially when I visit specialty places.

Today, I was lucky.

I actually saw this place for a while now with a big banner that said, ‘ we sell ground coffee’ but I was fairly hesitant to visit.

First, ‘coffee’ in this small town could be an inferior robusta that is added with corn and french roasted. Second, the place isn’t appealing enough for me to check it out. But the second part is my ‘ don’t judge the book by cover’ fallacy. Well, today after my usual hospital visit routine, I walked to it. It’s around a six minute walk and the closest coffee place I could find.

Apparently the place is a home business. There was the owner and his family lounging around and I was warmly greeted. Inside the place they displayed a variety of coffee beans from all across the region in Indonesia. They also separate between Arabica and Robusta on display.

Since I was pretty overwhelmed with the options, I ended up choosing coffee beans that I am currently exploring, the coffee beans grown in West Java. The coffee grown in West Java tends to have a pleasant sour taste that I like. They are also not sour apples but more like peaches, passion fruit as well as grapes. In that place they have two so I sampled one for home and I tasted there to drink.

Cisero honey processed

I eventually decided to get Cisero honey processed. Cicero is a coffee growing region in West Java and the honey process is a method to process the coffee cherry using wet and dry techniques. This region has an interesting flavor that I quite enjoy compared to other regions in Indonesia.

While preparing for my order, I got to talk to the owner who is also a coffee farmer and is experimenting with Excelsa beans. He told me that it’s rare for people to buy arabica in the city except if they’re from out of town. The people in town still prefer robusta and even coffee shops in town roast their coffee from his place. Most coffee shops in town also use Gayo rather than east-java grown coffee. He also told me that due to climate change, coffee farmers experience more crop failures which also affect the price. It’s also not easy to be in the coffee industry especially if you have no connection to first hand coffee farmers.

I was happy to learn more about the ins and outs of the coffee industry in the region from the owner. He is quite knowledgeable and added more of my understanding especially in the producing and processing sector. As usually I hangout with a barista and understand the brewing, today I got to learn about coffee production and even offered to try roasting the coffee myself when they re-launching the place.

As soon as I got home, I unboxed my coffee and it came with some stickers. I am guessing they don’t have any other boxes so they gave me a colombia box, beans that they also have. I also requested it to be grinded for v60 method so it was grinded coarse. Even though I already had coffee, I ended up making more v60. It was indeed just the way I like it lately, slightly grape sour and pleasant aftertaste. While it has different notes than the ones I tasted from Hayati, this one is something I can drink everyday more than Colombia these days.

Since 100gr is likely done in a few days, I am definitely going to try other processes as well as other coffee from different regions. Stay tuned for more coffee stories and adventures from me!