Indonesian Coffees to Try

You could easily go out and grab a bag of Sumatra coffee from Starbucks or Petes coffee. And there is nothing wrong with that. But I wanted to highlight a few small specialty coffee roasters who are making some delicious Indonesian coffee.

Bali

We didn’t talk much about Bali in this episode because, well frankly coffee from Bali is relatively hard to find. But I found a good one!

Bali Blue Moon Dark Roast from LumberJack Coffee Co is a delicious, smooth coffee. I tend to prefer lighter roasts because I find most dark roasts cook the flavor out of the beans and all I taste is dark caramel and charcoal but this coffee is an exception to that trend. The folks at LumberJack managed to roast this coffee in a way that actually highlights some of the flavors of the beans at a dark roast. This coffee is delicious with flavors of cedar, dark chocolate, tobacco and a little black licorice.

 

Sumatra

Classic Sumatra Coffee:

My recommendation for a classic Sumatra coffee that highlights the flavors of the wet hulled process is Ulos Batak Sumatra from JBC Coffee Roasters out of Madison, WI. This coffee is a classic rich and full body Sumatra with flavors that you would expect like dark chocolate, fudge, pipe tobacco, and a slight spicy finish. There also subtle sweet fruit and notes of lavender in this coffee that make it intricate and delicious.

 

Unique Sumatra Coffee:

Almost ALL coffee from Sumatra is process using the wet-hulled method. It is very unusual to find a washed-processed coffee from Sumatra. Well Equator Coffees & Teas has one for you called Sumatra Holong Batak.  This coffee is a blend of fully washed and honey processed coffees from the famous Lintong region of Sumatra. This coffee maintains some of the classic woody, chocolate, and molasses flavors. However, subtle fruity flavors of plum and cherry replace the earthy and tobacco flavor notes that are more typical in Sumatra coffees.

Java

Many Java coffees are added to coffee blends, the most famous of which is the Mocha Java blend that combines African coffee (typically either from Yemen or Ethiopia) with Java coffee. So my recommendation here is going to be this classic blend rather than a single origin Java coffee.  I’d recommend Old Governement Mocha Java from Out of the Grey Coffee. This is a delicious Mocha Java blend that combines the earthy, leather, tobacco flavors of the Java coffee with crisp, citrus and plum flavors from the Yemenis coffee.