Description

With mild acidity and a heavy, syrupy body, this Organic Java is clean but complex; rich in character with a smattering of chocolate and walnut flavors. Its bold presence has a lingering aftertaste that makes this Indonesian hard to forget.

Production Notes
Coffee has been cultivated on the Island of Java since the late 1600’s; the first Dutch sailing ships carrying coffee back to Europe can be traced back to 1711. These ships would often also call at the port of Mokka in modern-day Yemen, combining the Javanese coffee with the local production, resulting in the famous Mocca-Java blend. Most of the trees in Java at this time were planted in low lying areas and by the late 1800’s had become infested with coffee rust, a defoliant disease that thrives at lower altitudes due to the warmer climate. This was extremely detrimental to the quality and volume coming out of Java for several generations, but it did force production up to the highlands, where volcanic soil and higher altitudes lay the groundwork for a much better cup.

The vast majority of coffee production on Java is controlled by the Indonesian government estates (any coffee called “Estate Java,” including the Pancoer and Jampit on our offering sheet, falls into this category). However, there are smallholder farmers on the Ijen Plateau in eastern Java who operate independently. This “Taman Dadar” coffee (meaning flower garden, as the local farmers call this area), comes from the villages of Curah Tatal and Kayumas (not to be confused with the estate of the same name). By far the most common varietal grown in this area is S 795, a Typica hybrid that is also very common in Toraja, Sulawesi. Grown at altitudes ranging from 900 up to 1600 meters, this coffee has been organic by default for generations. Just this season, these farmers have been certified Organic by the Control Union, allowing them to receive a premium for their coffee.

While the government estates practice monocultural farming, the Taman Dadar farmers do intersperse Erythrina, Albizia and Leucaena trees for shade and as a source of food for their livestock (which in turn supply the fertilizer). Additionally, the intercropping of Parkia Beans, Avocado, and timber trees is fairly common.
Under normal climate conditions the harvesting period takes place between May and September, with farmers typically picking in the morning and then delivering ripe cherry to the processing stations in the afternoon.

While the government estates practice fully-washed processing, Taman Dadar coffee is processed using the “wet-hulled” method, though in a slightly different way than it is done in Northern Sumatra or Bali. This processing method removes the outer skin of the red cherries by pulping machine in the late afternoon or evening. The mucilage-covered parchment is then put into fermentation tanks for 24 – 36 hours. After washing, the clean parchment is sun-dried on bamboo mats for about 8 hours until it reaches 35 % moisture content (slightly lower than Bali, and about 15% lower than most of Northern Sumatra). At this stage, the exporter will buy the wet parchment and hull it before final drying down to 12-15%.