INDONESIAN FLAVOUR IN EVERY CUPS OF COFFEE !

INDONESIA is the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world. Coffee in this archipelago began with its colonial history, and has played an important part in the growth of the country. Indonesia is located within an ideal geography for coffee plantations.

EAST JAVA COFFEE PLANTATIONS WITH MOUNT IJEN AS A BACKGROUND

The longitude and latitude of the country means that the island origins are all well suited micro-climates for the growth and production of coffee, resulting in widespread environmental degradation and the destruction of tropical rainforests that have the highest concentration of endemic species in the world.

This country produced 420,000 metric tons of coffee in 2007 that came from whole domestic regions with various taste and quality. Of this total, 271,000 tons were exported and 148,000 tons were consumed domestically. Of the exports, 25% are arabica beans; the balance is robusta.In general, Indonesia’s arabica coffees have low acidity and strong body, which makes them ideal for blending with higher acidity coffees from Central America and East Africa.

TORAJA COFFEE PRODUCED FROM SULAWESI PLANTATIONS

Now coffee crop has been planted throughout the territory of Indonesia, including Bali but if according to the history of coffee plants in Indonesia, in the early days, the prominent coffee under dutch rule was coffea arabica. The coffee was introduced to the archipelago via Sri lanka (Ceylon). The Dutch colonial government initially planted coffee around Batavia  now as known as Jakarta, and as far South as Sukabumi and bogor - West of Java, in the 17th century.

Coffee plantations were also established in East Java, Central Java, another regions of West Java and in parts of Sumatra and Sulawesi. Coffee at the time was also grown in Nusa Tenggara, East Indonesian archipelago such as East Timor and Flores island. Both of these islands were originally under portuguese control and the coffee was also c. Arabica, but from different root stocks. 

The coffee in eastern Indonesia was not affected to the same degree by rust, and even today, some coffee in East Timor can be traced back to the 16th and 17th century.

A rust plague in the late 1880s killed off much of the plantation stocks in Sukabumi, before spreading to Central Java and parts of East Java. Around the start of the 20th century, the C. arabica crops were devastated by coffee rust, wiping out the bulk of the Dutch root-stocks

The Dutch responded by replacing the C. Arabica firstly with Coffea liberica (a tough, but somewhat unpalatable coffee) and later with Coffea robusta. The popularity of this species was short lived as it was also affected by disease. The C. liberica cherry can still be found throughout Java, but is seldom used as a commercial crop in Indonesia. 

The C. liberica bean is much larger than either the arabica or the robusta cherry; however, it shares more in common cupping wise with robusta.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE COFFEE IN THE WORLD

KOPI LUWAK

KOPI LUWAK is the name that used for marketing brewed coffee made from the  exotic best quality beans . LUWAK is an animal name came from Javanese language or MUSANG in Bahasa Indonesia means CIVET and KOPI LUWAK means CIVET COFFEE.

Civet coffee is an unique  process  from  a cute creatures name  Paradoxurus Hermaphroditus or Asian Palm Civet they choose to eat coffee berries containing better beans. Digestive mechanisms may improve the flavor profile of the coffee beans that have been eaten. 

The civet eats the berries for the beans' fleshy pulp, then in the digestive tract, fermentation occurs. The civet's proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated with other fecal matter and collected.

THE  COFFEE PREDATORS HAVE BECOME FRIENDS

Despite being in contact with faeces and pathogenic organisms, the beans contain negligible amounts of the enteric (pathogenic) organisms associated with feces. Moreover, the "cherry" or endocarp surrounding the bean is not completely digested by the luwak, and after being collected, the farmer performs thorough washing and removes the endocarp.

BEAUTIFUL SUPERVOLCANO  TOBA SURROUNDING BY SUMATRAN COFFEE PLANTATIONS

Sumatra is the world's largest regional producer of kopi luwak. Sumatran civet coffee beans are mostly an early arabica variety cultivated in the Indonesian archipelago since the 17th century. The major Sumatran kopi luwak production area is in Lampung, Bengkulu and Aceh especially the Gayo region, Takengon.

Appropriate narrative history, the origin of kopi luwak is closely connected with the history of coffee production in Indonesia. In the early 18th century the Dutch established the cash-crop coffee plantations in their colony in the Dutch East Indies islands of Java and Sumatra, including Arabica coffee introduced from Yemen. During the era of Cultuurstelsel (1830—1870), the Dutch prohibited the native farmers and plantation workers from picking coffee fruits for their own use. 

Still, the native farmers wanted to have a taste of the famed coffee beverage. Soon, the natives learned that certain species of musang or luwak (Asian Palm Civet) consumed the coffee fruits, yet they left the coffee seeds undigested in their droppings. The natives collected these luwak's coffee seed droppings, then cleaned, roasted and ground them to make their own coffee beverage. The fame of aromatic civet coffee spread from locals to Dutch plantation owners and soon became their favourite, yet because of its rarity and unusual process, the civet coffee was expensive even during the colonial era.

And now with retail prices reaching €550 / US$700 per kilogramme, KOPI LUWAK crowned as the most expensive coffee in the world.

Let's try.....!

All videos Courtesy of YouTube.