Table of contents
Indonesia
$ 0.52 - $34.02 per ounce
| Varieties | Arabica, Robusta, Typica, Timor, Linie S, Catimor, Caturra, Rambung, Abyssinia, Kopi Luwak, Catuai |
| How to Serve | No special way to serve it, but Kopi Luwak is usually served as an espresso or something resembling a Lungo |
| Flavor | Very low acidity with hints of chocolate and caramel |
| Recommended Machine | Any machine can work |
| Good As | Espresso, Americano, Cappuccino, Macchiato, Latte |
| Price Range | $0.52 – $34.02 per ounce |
| Caffeine Level | 0.5% on average |
Indonesia’s coffee history starts back from the 17th century when this beverage was first introduced to the country by way of Dutch traders. As for now, Indonesia is one of the world’s top coffee-producing countries, and it is home to numerous coffee-growing islands. There are several Indonesian coffee brands that represent a variety of distinct locations and we are going to explore them in more depth in today’s guide.
Indonesia offers a variety of specialty coffees in addition to ordinary coffee. Luwak coffee (also known as kopi luwak), Toraja coffee, Aceh coffee, and Mandailing coffee are the most well-known of these specialties. However, the most popular type remains Kopi Luwak which is known as one of the most expensive coffees for several important reasons.
Other, more widely known varieties of coffee grown in Indonesia include the following:
| Arabica | Robusta | Typica | Timor |
| Catimor | Caturra | Catuai | Rambung |
Indonesian coffees have a dark and robust taste profile with a strong earthiness. Tasting notes from the semi-wash procedure include mustiness, spice, wood, and tobacco. It is important to note that compared to other coffees you may have already tasted, Indonesian coffee frequently has a long-lasting aftertaste that reminds you of either unsweetened or dark chocolate.
Below, we will further delve into the coffee culture in Indonesia, as well as the top products to buy online and how to prepare them.
Kopi Luwak was all the rage at the time and has remained popular ever since. It’s also well-known for something other than its unusual processing: its price. A cup of Kopi Luwak coffee usually costs between $30 and $100, while the price per pound can range between $100 and $600. That’s 20 to 50 times the price of a regular cup of coffee!
Some people say that this specialty coffee is the greatest in the world, but the high price is a terrible barrier. It is a direct result of the lengthy process of cultivating Kopi Luwak beans.
The origins of Kopi Luwak coffee may be traced back to the 1700s when the Dutch established coffee plantations in Sumatra and Java. Locals discovered that wild animals were eating the ripe coffee cherries and left the beans behind. They couldn’t gather coffee beans for themselves, so they began brewing coffee from the abandoned beans.
The main point is that wild animals, unlike human coffee pickers, will only eat the nicest, ripest cherries, ensuring that you don’t wind up with inferior, unripe beans. The cherries are completely stripped of their delicious covering as they transit through a civet’s stomach. It’s simply a thorough washing process that gets the beans ready for drying and roasting. Mold does not form on the bean if there is no fruit left on it, resulting in a nicer cup of coffee.
Getting coffee directly from Indonesian retailers is possible but the logistics, payments, availability, etc are not worth it. Thankfully, Amazon has mostly taken care of that already and these specialty coffees are ripe for the picking on the website. Here are some of the best ones we’ve found.
We pay attention to the following:
For more detailed information on how exactly we rate the coffee products we suggest in our guides, click here.
We believe that simply naming the best Indonesian coffees to buy will not be enough as there are a lot of different aspects that might influence your decision-making process. In order to make this easier for you, we will do individual overviews of these coffees, stating important facts about each of them.
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Price: $$19.99 (subject to change) |
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Size: 32 ounces |
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Type: Arabica |
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Roast: Medium |
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Producer: Barrie House |
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Beans: Whole |
The first on our list comes to the Sumatra Single Origin that, as you can guess from the name, originated from Sumatra’s mountainous regions. This location has the ideal climate and elevation for coffee growing. Small farms’ unique processing methods provide a world-renowned full-bodied taste with a silky finish. Syrupy dark chocolate, raisins, and spicy tones with an earthy fragrance are typical tastes of this coffee.
The company behind Sumatra Single Origin beans is Barrie House that has been roasting coffee since 1994 – besides the fact that you are dealing with an experienced brand, Barrie House has also received a lot of certifications proving that their coffee is one of the best Indonesian coffees online.
One package of Indonesian Sumatra weighs 32 ounces and is worth $19.99. The price is pretty good considering the quality of your cup of coffee. As soon as I opened my package, I immediately felt the smell of dark chocolate, which does not have a very big impact on the taste as I was expecting but is still noticeable.
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Price: $$35.00 (subject to change) |
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Size: 1.76 ounces |
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Type: Kopi Luwak |
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Roast: Medium |
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Producer: Kaya Kopi |
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Beans: Whole |
Premium Kopi Luwak is actually one of the most special coffees that one might come across. To make it, the coffee berries are eaten by a civet. The berries come into contact with proteolytic enzymes in these animals’ stomachs, which changes the makeup of the coffee berries. The farmers of Kaya Kopi gather the beans after the Luwak excretes them. The outer covering of each bean is then removed, and the beans are meticulously cleaned, sun-dried, and roasted. When you receive your Luwak coffee, it is completely clean and safe to consume.
Are you intrigued by how this coffee tastes? Well, I am not surprised as I was myself intrigued too. Kaya Kopi Luwak has a rich taste profile that is smooth, earthy, and sweet with a hint of chocolate. It’s a flavor that no coffee lover should miss out on. It is important to note that there is no need for sugar or other additives to mask coffee’s inherent bitterness.
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Price: $$19.99 (subject to change) |
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Size: 16 ounces |
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Type: Arabica |
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Roast: Medium |
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Producer: Volcanica |
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Beans: Ground |
Volcanica Sumatran Coffee is a unique Indonesian coffee that is deliciously smooth with a rich, heavy body, low acidity, unusual flavor, and strong syrupy aftertaste. This is a perfect choice for people that are bored with the taste of regular coffee and are passionate about some new and exciting.
The producer of this coffee is Volcanica – created back in 2004. Volcanica Coffee is a specialty roaster of unusual coffee dedicated to providing only the highest quality coffee from volcanic locations throughout the world. With them, you can not only get the taste of the best Indonesian coffee, but over 130 different coffees, including single-origin, estate, peaberry, decaf, and flavored.
Right now, a 16-ounce package of this Sumatran coffee costs $19.99, which I think is pretty affordable. Moreover, the company has discounts from time to time so make sure you check this product on Amazon to not miss out on some great opportunities of grabbing high-quality coffee.
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Price: $$41.35 (subject to change) |
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Size: 5 pounds |
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Type: Arabica |
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Roast: Unroasted |
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Producer: Smokin Beans |
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Beans: Whole |
If you are looking for premium green coffee beans, then Unroasted Indonesian Sulawesi is for you. The coffee comes with chocolate and slight berry-spice tones. Sulawesi Toraja White Eagle Coffee is grown in one of the world’s most remote regions. This Arabica coffee is cultivated largely by local smallholders in the area. Sulawesi coffee tastes similar to Sumatra coffee, but it creates a more consistent cup and is regarded by some experts to be Indonesia’s top product.
My favorite thing about this coffee is that it comes with low acidity that can be maintained all the way to the French Roast level. The producer of Indonesian Sulawesi is the award-winning Smokin Beans – their coffee is cultivated by experienced farmers that practice modern farming and promote biodiversity at the same time.
For a package of 5 pounds, you will have to pay $41.35, however, it is possible to choose from other options as well. Currently, there are 3.5 and 5 pounds options available.
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Price: $$18.70 (subject to change) |
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Size: 12 ounces |
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Type: Arabica |
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Roast: Medium-Dark |
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Producer: Barbarossa Coffee |
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Beans: Whole |
The last on our list is an award-winning coffee called Barbarossa Indonesian Sumatra. For three years straight (2017-2019), It has been awarded from the next door app for having the highest consumers rates. What this means is that you are dealing with high-quality Indonesian coffee beans.
These beans are known for having strong notes of spices, sweet tobacco, chocolate, and cedar sun-dried aroma. I myself was able to taste the notes of chocolate which was not very strong but still present. As expected from Indonesian coffees, this one also comes with low acidity, which makes this product a perfect option for people that have trouble with stomach and headaches.
What’s even better is that this coffee is a budgeted option. Compared to other top Indonesian coffees online, this one is pretty affordable – you just have to pay $18.7 for a 12-ounce package. With the strong flavor and tasty aroma it comes with, I believe that this coffee is definitely worth your time, money, and attention.
Indonesians have been enamored with coffee since its arrival in the 17th and 18th centuries. Coffee consumption has become an Indonesian ritual and an essential component of daily life. Numerous international coffee shop chains and cafés operate in shopping malls and office buildings in major cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan. However, true coffee culture may be seen on the street or in the kitchens of people’s houses.
Let’s discuss different ways of making traditional Indonesian coffee at home.
Kopi Jahe is a brewed coffee mixed with ginger. This traditional coffee mix has previously been manufactured and marketed in sachets, which promote it as herbal medicine in addition to being recognized as a traditional beverage. In order to make it, you will need the following ingredients:
Once you’ve gathered all these things, it’s time to get into the brewing process:
Kopi Tubruk is known as the most common way to brew Indonesian coffee beans. In order to do this at home by yourself, you will need the following things:
This method is actually pretty simple and does not need a lot of additional accessories, once you have all the things mentioned above, you can move on to the next thing:
This is a unique method of brewing coffee in which a piece of smoldering charcoal is submerged in the coffee during the brewing process to impart a baked flavor. This specialty coffee is widely available in Yogyakarta, Java’s cultural heartland, at roadside vendors.
To put in a few words, this is just a normal black coffee but you add burning charcoal to it. It’s a well-known fact that charcoal can easily absorb toxins. The name of this coffee comes from the sound when charcoal touches the coffee. It was invented during the 80s and since then, remains one of the most popular types of traditional Indonesian coffee. Burned charcoal creates the same heat level that boiling coffee in a can has.
Kopi Tarik is a sugar-sweetened brewed Aceh Arabica coffee. During the mixing and brewing procedure, the freshly brewed coffee is poured repeatedly from one container to another using a cotton strainer to give it a unique thickness and rich flavor.
To make this method work, you’ll need to have these things:
Once you have all of these things, follow these simple steps:
Lemongrass has been utilized as an aromatic meal by Indonesians in many traditional dishes. Coffee with lemongrass has a distinct fragrant flavor and provides a sense of freshness to the body.
If you wish to use coffee using these methods, then you need to have these things:
Here’s what the process looks like:
Above, we discussed some of the methods of brewing traditional Indonesian coffee. However, I would also like to share my favorite ones which are a little more advanced and can help you produce different flavors that you might enjoy more.
In order to make a great cup of stovetop coffee, it is crucial that you have high-quality coffee beans. Such can easily be Indonesian coffee beans that you can purchase directly from Amazon. Other than ground coffee, you might also need:
Considering the fact that this is a very simple method, you don’t even have to follow a lot of steps:
An espresso machine is pretty common for cafes that you probably visit every day. This method is not very hard, however, to make a perfect cup of coffee, you must be dedicated, pay attention to detail, and be consistent. The good news is that the work is always worthwhile. So, let’s get this party started! You will need the following items:
Once you have all these things, you can go straight to the process of brewing your Indonesian coffee:
The Moka Pot is a traditional brewing technique with deep Italian roots. The Moka Pot, invented by Luigi De Ponti in 1933, has spent more than three-quarters of a century as one of the most known and championed at-home coffee alternatives (mostly in Europe). However, it is perfectly possible to use this method at any location in the world once you have all the necessary items, including:
Here’s how the coffee brewing process looks:
It is important to keep in mind that your Moka Pot should always be clean before you start brewing your coffee. A lot of people think that not cleaning a pot helps your coffee taste better when the reality is actually pretty different. Dirty Moka Pot will make your cup taste bitter, so it’s always a good idea to keep things clear.
