Bali Coffee

We arrived in Bali from Medan, the island just south of Java, on Wednesday Night. Bali (if you are not aware) is also a part of Indonesia along with Sulawesi, Papua, Flores, Sumatra and Java.

Bali has people of mostly Hindu faith. When you arrive you immediately see the culture of the Hindu people. Every street is lined with temples large and small. Most of the temples are fore certain gods that the Balinese people make offerings to on a daily basis to help them with everything from good luck to good crops.

In the Balinese Arabia producing area, farmer groups range from 40 to 80 families and are mainly organized according to the traditional “Subak Abian” structure. A Subak Abian is established in a clearly defined geographical area. Every person, either landowner or tenant with development and/or agriculture activity, may be a member. The Subak Abian is not only an economic entity, as it is also in charge of social and religious life. Consequently the Subak Abian objectives derive from Hindu philosophy, which teaches that human beings have to secure and respect three kinds of relationships: God, fellow man, and the environment. This Philosophy is called Ri Hita Karana, which means three happiness cases. All of the activities derived from The Subak Abian and their expenses are shared with the group.

The one day we were there we noticed several cremation ceremonies full of people saying goodbye to a family member. It may take the family up to 7 years to get enough money to put on the event, but when they do the entire village comes out to join. A symbolic statute is burnt as a representation of the body’s cremation.

In the morning we were picked up by the branch manager of PT Indo Cafco Uliana Melanie Purba. She was great to have as a guide and very accommodating to us. Our first visit this day was to see the Kertawaringin Group - 54 farms with a total growing area of about 80 acres producing about 30 tons of coffee. All of the coffee is near a volcano and a lake.

Right before we arrived at the coffee group and their mill we stopped alongside the road to take pictures of some women picking coffee. In Bali they pick coffee in the morning and most of the day they hull the coffee that is to be fermented for 12 hours. They have recently made a change to reduce the fermentation time from 36 hours to 12. Adam Kline (from Atlantic Specialty Coffee) and I did a cupping comparison with the two types of coffees. There was such a difference in the coffees I understand now why they are looking at changing. An interesting thing happened while cupping. Adam was very persistent about asking to do a regular cupping and instead we initially got to taste a shot of espresso as our cupping comparative. Once Adam rectified the situation by setting the grinder and redoing the cupping we cupped the coffee correctly. It isn’t unusual to see this kind of cupping at origin if something breaks or people get lazy. All the groups have a chief and this one was glad to participate.

As you can see even in the coffee mill there are different religious statues to help them. They tend to dry most of their coffees on wood-framed screens with handles that stack nicely.

What I found was they need to rethink the fermentation times to look at somewhere in between 12 and 36 hours. Adam is going to get some samples set up of all three fermentation times and we can set them up at Portland Roasting as well.

The second coffee group was called Bakti Yasa. The village elder showed us around and offered us Coffee in-house. The entire area of coffee is also a large tangerine growing area. The elderly man walked us around and showed us his son’s house where they were drying coffee and also shipping tangerines.

The third and final group we visited was quite fun. They did some milling for us and the chief of this group was very excited about being on you tube after I get back. He has a large assortment of barnyard animals right next to the coffee processing area, including many pigs, fighting roosters, and cows.

On the way back to town we stopped at a shrine that was believed to be about 500 years old. We had to wear traditional scarf pants and a ribbon.

Another interesting thing in this area is a competition of who has the best Balinese dog. The puppy pictured is one from the area. These dogs along with their beautiful roosters are prized possessions. The dogs are supposed to be either solid white or solid black.

Bali is the second Hawaii in my book, but with more interesting coffees. I think if they get their processing down and market the coffees well someday they could become an exciting coffee. For every coffee shop owner or roaster, Bali is a must-visit destination in Indonesia. The hotels are like Hawaii, the restaurants are great and of course if you visit PT Indo Cafco’s operation, they are a delight.