Bali Coffee Growing
Coffee well grows at highland. It is supposed that Indonesia introduced coffee when Dutch colonization
started in Indonesia from 16th century. They might had brought the seed from Malabar Coast on West India. Some coffee
estates opened during Dutch Colonization are still exist until now for example coffee plantation in West
Java, and Kali Klatak East Java, Pabatu coffee plantation in North Sumatra, and in Tabek Fatah, Bukit
Tinggi West Sumatra, and Lampung, South Sumatera. After Indonesian independence a big estate again
developed in Padamaran area, Toraja, a joint with Japanese business organization, this product is famous
in Japan as one of the best coffee products. Coffee estates are now managed by government as state's
corporation. While privately owned coffee plantations are spreading out from west to east Indonesia.
If we visit a shop here in Denpasar, a collection of coffee found from Lampung, Bukit Tinggi, Toraja,
Bali and others. If the coffee is processed purely without any combination of other agricultural materials each of
the area has it's specific taste. In big cities of Indonesia, especially in Denpasar combined coffee
with other materials are more popular then pure coffee. In Bali, normally in the villages people still
drink pure coffee while in the cities they choose to drink mixed coffee. In Indonesia one famous
combined coffee producer is Indo-Cafe with export quality. While in Bali there is mixed coffee
producer with export quality, and 1 pure coffee producer with export quality in Singaraja. For this pure
coffee, people say has strong taste and is not suitable to drink if you have problem with high blood
pressure or hypertension, and is good for those who has low blood pressure.
Bali Coffee
Bali coffee is one of the best coffee product you can drink in Bali, served hot with strong aroma. Bali
coffee was planted since 19th century during the golden era of Klungkung kingdom. On that time, the land
of Northern and Western part of this island was cultivated with many kind of agricultural products and
coffee was one of it. The area of this plantation mainly covering 3 regencies in Bali, start from
Tabanan, Singaraja and Bangli regency. We have two kind of coffee species growing :
* Robusta is one of coffee species grows in the highland and lives for many years with physical
characters : Grow big and high, wide leaves, small round fruits, fragrant flower, many branches and can
reach 5-7 meters high from the land. Favorable land for planting is cool climate, terraced land,
700-1000 above sea level.
* Arabica is one of coffee species grows also in Bali. This species normally is productive
between 5-15 years old. Physical characteristic of this species are small trunks, long and narrow leaves,
the fruits bigger than Robusta, limited and short branches, can reach 1-2,5 meters high from the land,
Suitable planting area at volcanic area with cool climate between 600-1000 above sea level.
Harvesting Time
Harvesting time is twice a year between July - August and February - March. Usually the farmer harvests
their coffee when the coffee skin become yellow to red color. The best quality coffee produced when
coffee seeds taken from well mature fruits (red color skin). Delicious taste and strong aroma spread out
in the air if the seed is already mature.
Coffee Process
* Drying system. Farmers in Bali dries coffee seed traditionally by exposing out the seed on concrete floor in open, sun dries it naturally. The drying process takes around 1-2 weeks until the seed is considered well dried.
* Storing. We need a year to store coffee seed if we want to get the best quality.
* Roasting. It takes around 20-30 minutes to roast until the seed become brown to black color using traditional methode. In this process we don't use any kind of flavor or chemical.
* Pounding. For export quality product, we use machine to pound it until we get the best coffee powder.
Packaging
To promote Bali Coffee, the wholesalers use special packaging by showing Balinese special identification.
The cover of packaging made from paper bag with nice color and Balinese picture on both bag side, easy
brought for souvenir.
Marketing
* Selling locally to traditional market, supermarket, restaurants, hotels and coffee shops available in Bali for souvenir home of visitor coming to Bali.
* Exported to other countries such as Japan, USA, Singapore, etc.
Written by I Made Wirajaya |
