Feb 06th 2009: Our 2nd cupping

Our 2nd cupping on Feb 6th 2009 was done with product from the local roasters Koffie Fabriek Aroma Bandung and Pontianak Kopi. The coffees that we tasted were from 4 regions in Indonesia, mostly single origin and one blend.

Here is what we discovered;

1. Koffie Aroma - Toraja (Pure Arabica)

Fragrance: Woody, Smoky

Aroma: Earthy, Woody

Acidity: No acidity

Body: Full Body

Flavor: Smoky earthy flavor. However, less interesting than its Aceh cousin

2. Koffie Aroma - Aceh (Pure Arabica)

Fragrance: Smoky, Lemony, Earthy

Aroma: Earthy, Lemony, Citrus

Acidity: Mild

Body: Medium to Full

Flavor: Citrus and earthy flavor that shows the Sumatran heritage

3. Kopi Pontianak

Fragrance: Chocolatie, Woody

Aroma: Woody, Smooky

Acidity: Mild, low

Body: Less Body

Flavor: Bitter but one of authentic local thick coffees which goes well with lots of sugar

4. Koffie Aroma - Robusta blend (Java/Sumatra)
Fragrance: Herbal
Aroma: Smoky but less aromatic
Acidity: No acidity
Body: Medium to Full
Flavor: Bitter and strong cup

Coffee tip of the day:

Each region has its own charecterics which make it unique. It is also why each region has die hard fanatic where what their taste buds have been accustomed with certain flavor. How can you be an unbiased, decerning coffee drinker? Well... spend some time cupping yourself to taste the difference! You might be pleasantly surprised with what you find... :)

Jan 10th 2009: Coffee Roasting Experience

This is our first experience on roasting, and since we dont have the proper coffee roaster, we just following the amateur guide to roast the coffee using frying pan. We believe we will end up with the modern and proper coffee roaster in the near future.
Before the roasting process begin, we preparing some stuff that we will need.


1. Frying pan


2. Gas


3. Stir-stick


4. And the most important the guide book on when the roasting should be stop.



We pour half of the picked green bean into the frying pan and start the roasting process. As per the guidance the bean need to be stirred all the time to get all bean roasted equally. If using the modern roaster, there s the drum which will keep rolling to make sure all the bean got heated and roasted equally.







After 14 minutes stirring, then it came the first crack and we were very happy and excited about it because that's mean we are doing the correct way.
The beans began to turn light brown color as it start the first crack.
And we can see the chaff begin to separated from its bean.
The smell of the coffee began to filled the kitchen area, and it was really smell good.



On the next 10 minutes stirring, the second crack begin to sounding and the color of the bean turning more and more brownish color, and some of them were turned to black which we think it over roasted. Because using the fying pan, we can not make the equalization on roasting the bean. The stage of the roasting that we were targeting was the full city to french roast.
The smell begun to turn stronger and start the smokey smell, the coffee smell didnt as strong as before, and the smoke begun to be seen and filled the kitchen.
After the second crack sounded, we keep stirring for next 5 minutes before we turn off the gas.
After we finish the roasting, it time to get rid off the chaff from the frying pan. And then we use the media to putthe roasted beans.













After the roasting, here come the grinding process for coffee tasting. We grind the roasted coffee using th norm coffee grinder as coarse grind for the tasting.
And as after grinding we brew it using the boiled water (around 80 deg C).
After brewing we were using the drip filter.

The rest of the green bean and roasted beans we kept it on the air-tight container.


















It was the very fine and excited day for us to have the first cup of our very own coffee... Even it was not the best coffee, but we really appreciate the effort of each of us did, and the coffee taste good. Can compare with Starbuck Daily Brew... hahahha....
Great.....
See you in the next article. =)

Happy coffeing...

Jan 10th, 2009: Hand Picking Coffee

Just a week after we return to Singapore from Bali, we are very excited with the bean that we bought and with the guide from the book, we begin to work on what the coffee amateur did on picking, roasting, grinding until the tasting.

First, we just realized the green bean that we got from "Kopi Mawar" still need lots of job to be done. With the guide from the Japanese book for coffee knowledge, we finally figure out the type of the bad bean which need to be taken away before it roasting. Taking out bad beans as it will affect the taste.
So before we begin to roast the green bean, we have to separate the good bean from the bad one. And as we figure out, hand picking was the only option that we have.
There are 4 of us doing the hand picking on the good beans to the bad beans.
One by one the beans were picked and as per the first time, we almost on doubt that we take the bad bean as the good bean. but with clarifying from each other with the good help from the book guidance, finally we can assure that which one was the good and which was bad.
The hand picking was looked simple, but never come to our mind it was not as easy as we thought.
With the very patient, we were picking 1 Kg unpicked bean one by one.
Here are some picture from the experiment that we have on the hand picking process.















And below is the picture of the good and the bad bean. Madu atau Racun? Which one to choose? Left is the good beans and right the bad beans.














Phew...quite a work but it was great experience to learn the difference between bad beans and good beans. We ended up with red eyes, sore hands but its worth it.

After the good bean has been choosen we are ready on the roasting process. Which will be on the next blog.

Jan 03rd, 2009: Kopi Mawar Singaraja Visit

January 3rd, 2009. Early morning, we are heading to the coffee plantation in Bali. The area is called Singaraja. The distant is about 3 hrs drive from Denpasar.
Once we reach there, we went to on of the traditional coffee roaster, called "Kopi Mawar". This "Kopi Mawar" is known by the local people for the finest traditional local coffee taste. The roasting process is very traditional and they mixed the bean between Arabica and Robusta.



For this Kopi Mawar, they buy the green bean from the plantation which delivered to them daily. Because this is a home roaster, it only can roast up to 40kgs daily and sold out daily. After the roasting, some of the buyer is local traditional coffee shop. They always sell the fresh grind coffee powder. This is traditional coffee seller.




















We also bought some of the roasted bean and green bean from "Kopi Mawar" for tasting purpose and our traditional coffee research. The result of the tasting and roasting will posted on the next blog.

Jan 02nd, 2009: Kintamani Visit

We traveled to Bali early this year to visit some of the coffee maker area. On Jan 2nd, we went to one of the most popular agriculture tourism place. The place is in Kintamani area which is the volcano high land in Bali. On the spot they traditionally roast the coffee using the frying-pan.

This method of roasting coffee is consider as the most traditional way and yet still being used in this tourism agriculture site to produce the coffee and sell it to tourist. They call it as Authentic Bali Coffee.

Actually when we was there, we experience the taste of this coffee on the spot. They also provided other taster of their product like Cocoa, Ginger Coffee, Lemon Grass tea. As we taste their authentic roasted coffee, the aroma was not very strong, and acidity level also low.

One of the attraction on this site is while you tasting the coffee you also can feel the nature around you. The location is perfect for relaxing and chit-chatting while tasting the coffee they provided. On the so-called forest, they also have some coffee tree.

For sure the coffee fruit you see above was still young and still have a way to go for to grow until the coffee can be harvested.

It was a nice place to have the coffee.