In search of Indonesia's best-

quality coffee
ARYA DIPA
THE JAKARTA POST
Jakarta | Tue, April 24, 2018 | 09:28 am

Drinking coffee has become part of a hip, urban lifestyle in Indonesia, but this
public appetite still requires a quality boost.

Hans Simanjuntak, 42, from Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, was slurping

different types of coffee along with other cuppers, also known as coffee
testers, at the 5758 Coffee Lab in Bandung, West Java, when he started
coughing.

Hans and his fellow testers had to slurp hard and quickly in order to whet their
palates with the aim of thoroughly tasting the coffees’ flavors in detail.

“I was over zealous,” Hans said, explaining his sudden coughing fit.

For the test, Hans, who owns four coffee stalls in his hometown, first joined a
sensory training session in the same Coffee Lab, where he was required to
recognize and define the flavors of eight types of coffee served in 32 glasses,
along with three cuppers at his table and 12 others at three separate tables.

Each cupper had to clean the spoon they used for slurping with water before
scooping coffee from another glass. The glasses of coffee were not to be
touched, let alone raised. They had to rely on their remaining senses to
describe the various tastes offered by the manually brewed coffee.

Their reactions were expressed through scores and descriptions, giving

details of the roasting degree, aroma, any faults, sweetness, acidity,
mouthfeel or character, flavor, after taste and balance.

The aroma alone ranges from fruit-like to flower-like, and the flavor is also
complex, comprising that of grass, soils, fruits and spices.

The entire experience was meant to find the best-quality coffee.

Danny Pang, the program’s instructor who is certified and has been a coffee
trainer since 2009, said the scoring system followed a standardized method
approved by the coffee industry.

So far, Indonesia’s coffee production has been limited to commercial coffee

and specialty coffee; none have entered the Cup of Excellence (COE) or
Presidential Award categories.

“COE coffee in our definition is exemplary coffee. This means it has qualities
that sets it apart from other commercial or even specialty coffee,” Danny said.

Differences in quality are determined by cuppers’ scoring results. A COE

quality coffee must score between 86 and 89 out of a scale of 100.

“Anything above 90 is considered presidential coffee,” said Danny, who is also

Southeast Asia’s first authorized trainer from the Specialty Coffee Association
of Europe (SCAE).

The series of cupping and scoring practices are meant to appreciate farmers
in the upstream coffee industry, without overlooking the roles played by other
players, from roasters to baristas. Farmers contribute a great deal with coffee
planting, maintenance, harvesting and post-harvest processing, but they rarely
have the chance to promote their coffee to the global community.

“So, the COE is the way to discover their coffee, to explain and bring it to the
fore and tell the world, ‘Hey, we have very good coffee here.’ And of course,
we have to define what makes it excellent,” Danny said.
Meanwhile, Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI) chairman A.
Syafrudin, said coffee cuppers in the archipelago were still limited to Q-
graders for Arabica and R-graders for Robusta.

“SCAI is deeply concerned over the COE status because the country’s coffee
production is varied. Our product is still limited to commercial and specialty
coffee,” Syafrudin explained.

The standardization for COE, according to Syafrudin, has encouraged

cuppers to define and evaluate the quality of coffee more profoundly.

“The country still has many kinds of hidden coffees. Indonesia’s eight islands
are planted with Arabica coffee, which we should be exposed to the world
through the COE,” Syafrudin emphasized.

COE coffee makes up less than 1 percent of the country’s entire coffee
production, compared to specialty coffee at 10 percent. If any coffee is eligible
for the COE category, it can be internationally listed for open auctions at a
premium price, after undergoing several stages of blind cupping by
international juries. Later, the greater portion of auction proceeds will go to
farmers in the upstream sector.

“An example is organic coffee fair trade certification, which requires every
exporter to give farmers 44 United States per kilogram of coffee exported as a
show appreciation. Any violation is liable to sanctions,” Syafrudin said.