Our Trip Through Java & Bali

A Travel Report by Paul

After arriving in Jakarta, one of the largest cities in the world, I first immersed myself more deeply in Indonesia’s history. A visit to the historical museum in the old Dutch Quarter made clear the central role that the island of Java and its capital, Batavia, now Jakarta, had once played. Batavia was a transshipment hub and point of connection: colonial goods were shipped to the Netherlands through its port. Coffee was among them. Not far from the city lay the Kebun Raya Bogor botanical garden, a key site of colonial plant research. From here, botanical knowledge and cultivated plants were circulated through networks that reached far beyond Java.

Not the homeland of canephora, but part of the origin of the “Robusta” label.

After three intense days at World of Coffee, including many lively conversations in the Producers Village, we set off. Together with Farhan, Kissia, and Rizal, we began a journey across Java by minivan, with the goal of visiting seven coffee producers we had arranged to meet. Farhan, co-founder of Meramanis Coffee in Cologne and Uberall Roasters in Cirebon, West Java, was our local guide. Kissia, also a co-founder of Meramanis, wanted to gather photo material and finally meet several producers in person whose coffees she had already been buying. Rizal, a barista and friend of the two, joined us to document the trip and learn along the way.

West Java – Pioneers and Leopard Tracks

In West Java, we visited several coffee operations that are working with promising Coffea diversity. We also encountered processing methods we had neither heard of before nor ever had the chance to taste.

One of these stops was with the producer Rainaldi in the village of Marga Mekar. We had heard a great deal about him because he had brought various Coffea dewevrei (Excelsa) lots onto the competition world stage. In Indonesia, his reputation already preceded him.

He welcomed us into an old, uninhabited house on the outskirts of the village. Ratma, the owner of the farm we were about to visit, was there as well. The same goes for Sofyan, an agricultural expert from the Ministry of Agriculture, who joined us specifically for our visit. Surrounded by tiger mosquitoes, we walked behind the house, where the most impressive coffee tree we had all seen up to that point was waiting for us. Everyone agreed on that. Its trunk was comparable to that of an apple tree, its foliage was lush, and it was in bloom. The tree, they told us, was 120 years old. “This is wonderful coffee,” Rainaldi said, rolling the “r” in a way that was hard to miss. According to him, the yields of Excelsa become both larger and higher in quality the older the tree gets, unlike arabica or canephora.

We rode up to the farm on the back of his pickup truck. The view into the distance was breathtaking as we jolted along the rough road. At the end of the drivable track, we stopped at a tobacco farm. An Indonesian flag waved in the wind, and on the wall of a small hut hung a warning sign: “Leopard Territory.”…

The Excelsa farm lay in absolute tranquility. Set between banana plants, tobacco, and a strip of forest, it bordered a streambed. Around 100 coffee trees grew there. A fresh spring welled up directly from the meadow and fed the small stream that ran down the mountain. During the colonial period, this had been the site of a tea plantation. Today, the area has been renaturalized and is used as agroforestry land. Over a snack, Rai told us that he had worked on a palm oil plantation for 15 years. He had been involved in clearing rainforest and planting oil palms. “I saw orangutans being killed. I saw the forest die. Today, I hope for forgiveness by establishing agroforestry with Excelsa coffee.”

Back in the village, we had the chance to cup the full range of Rainaldi’s coffees at a friend’s café. We were blown away. Lime, pineapple, green apple, peach, blood orange, caramel, chocolate, marzipan, tobacco, porcini mushroom. Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami—every taste dimension appeared in his coffees. Each lot, each process, was significantly different and distinct in its flavor profile. Even an hour after the cupping, I could still notice the extraordinary sweetness of Excelsa, almost stevia-like, on my palate and tongue. Right there on site, I secured our first rare cumpa lot, produced by Rainaldi.

Central Java – Canephora by Conviction

We arrived in Central Java late in the evening, where we met Kissia’s family. Along with many others, we sat on large carpets spread out by the roadside to serve hungry groups at night. You would fill your plate at a kind of buffet and sit cross-legged together, eating, drinking, and laughing while the busy atmosphere unfolded around you. These are the moments that make travelling with local friends so special.

We had arranged to meet Vins and Bedjo in Sepakung. In a small village on Mount Telomoyo, the producer duo had built their processing station. Close by, they cultivated Robusta of the Tugusari variety at over 1,000 metres above sea level. From the highest farms, there was a view of Mount Merbabu, whose presence plays a defining role in the terroir of these farms as it rose majestically from the landscape…

Mbah Bedjo — Mbah being a respectful term for “uncle” — radiated joy, deep calm, and wisdom. He has been a passionate Canephora farmer for decades and knows the other farmers in the region extremely well. He and his much younger producer partner, Vins, share the vision of producing Canephora from Indonesia at the highest level of quality. Their Quattro Anaerobic Natural was fruity, well-structured, and clean when we first tasted it together. A statement coffee. For me, it was immediately clear: these are the kind of partners we are looking for.

As we descended from the farm, the voice of the muezzin from the mosque in the valley echoed up the mountain. A goosebump moment that inspired the name of Vins and Bedjo’s Canephora lot: “Kamandang” — “Echo.”

As the final stop on the island of Java, we met Reza.

Until then, we had only known his coffee through our friend Mikolaj Pociecha, who had spoken enthusiastically about Reza’s work and was already roasting his coffees. We had first met Reza at World of Coffee in Jakarta, so it was all the more special to see him again at his home, which also serves as a small showroom and processing station.

Reza is sharp-minded and mischievous, and he tells his story in a way that makes you listen. Despite his young age, you can sense the intensity of his life journey in his presence. Before becoming one of Indonesia’s most influential coffee producers, he had lived a very different life. He was poor, addicted to drugs, moving through the streets of Jakarta, and on the verge of losing himself completely. Then he decided to take a different path, leave his addiction behind, and move to the countryside to escape his environment and take control of his fate again…

Today, he ferments Arabica, Canephora, and Excelsa under controlled conditions, using different yeast combinations and mosto — the juice obtained from the fermentation of coffee cherries. Small lots with exotic profiles dry on the roof of his house. Both his coffees and his character are controversial, yet his life motto fits them equally well: “your opinion is not my reality.”

His cousin Adhi and his wife Iva, both chemists, are working on the vision of a processing lab where they cultivate local yeast cultures and bacteria for fermentation. Even now, their knowledge is already shaping the coffees that Reza presented to us in his living room.

Saying Goodbye – Final Stop: Bali

In Yogyakarta, our paths diverged. Kissia, Farhan, and Rizal returned to their hometowns, which we had passed through on our journey across Java. This sense of family means a great deal to me and to our work at cumpa, and I am already looking forward to returning one day.

I continued on to Bali, not to end the trip with a vacation, but with the goal of reaching my final stop: HEQA Coffee, a new producer in the north of the island that has set out to cultivate coffee with a truly future-oriented perspective.

Jeremy is the founder of the established importing company Kopi Fabriek in the Netherlands and plays a key role in building the HEQA processing station in northern Bali. Our first meeting point was in the south of the tropical holiday island. Then began the four-hour drive past coconut palms, rice fields, and Hindu temples. Bali felt different, spiritual and marked by a culture all its own.

In the car, we exchanged ideas, got to know one another, and became friends. After stopping at a volcano that had erupted a few years earlier, we drank coffee overlooking a field of black lava. We also stopped at the farm of Kanggo, a passionate arabica producer. Coffee grows here among orange and lemon trees. One small plot is planted with Yellow Caturra, whose yellow cherries tasted sweet, floral, and juicy.

Once we arrived at the processing station, the scale of the project became clear. The facility was still under construction, just short of completion. Soon, the first tons of specialty coffee would be processed here. And now we came to the main reason for my visit: a few years ago, hybrids with Liberica rootstock and a “Robusta” crown were planted in Bali. The deep root system is meant to supply the plant with water and minerals from deeper layers of soil, while the canephora top promises abundant yields and a nutty, caramel-like profile. It is a coffee adapted to the increasingly hot and dry climate of the region, and therefore truly future-oriented. At cumpa, we were excited to support this mission from day one.

Back to Europe – We Gained Partners and Friends

Nearly three weeks, traveling all the way across Java to Bali, became a fascinating and deeply instructive journey full of unforgettable impressions. I am sincerely grateful for the hospitality and the enthusiasm with which I was welcomed. At the beginning, our small travel group was brought together by purpose. Now, we are connected by friendship through the time we shared.

In the years ahead, Indonesia will become an important coffee origin for cumpa, and we can hardly wait to take you along one day as well — for a shared adventure: the first cumpa Origin Trip to Indonesia.

Will you join us?