We taste: clementine, raisin, herbaceous

Farm: Frinsa Collective
Region: Bandung, Tilu Mountains, Pangalengan, West Java
Processing Method: Washed
Elevation: 1,400-1,700 msl
Variety: Andungasari, Bor Bor, Katrika, Ateng

The Frinsa Collective is focused around a family-owned estate known as Frinsa, run by Wildan Mustofa. The "collective" refers to the family's purchasing of coffee from neighboring producers for processing and sale from the Finsa Estate. Wildan and his family are progressive, focusing on experimental processing more than is commonly found in Java.

The Collective uses several processing methods beyond washed coffees, including honey, natural, and anaerobic-environment fermentation, and is also separating out single-variety lots. Wildan oversees the agricultural and processing side of the business, while his wife Atieq handles contracts and their son Fikri does the cupping.

The coffee is rinsed, sorted, and depulped the same day it's delivered, and fermented for 18 hours. It's washed to remove the mucilage, then dried on patios for 7–10 days.

Javanese coffees have long been distinguished for their earthy, somewhat vegetal or herbaceous characteristics. When brewed, this washed coffee is mellow with hints of clementine orange, raisin, honeydew melon, and cola . Its creamy all by itself but holds its own with cream/milk.

We taste: melon, apple, milk chocolate 

Mill: Asman Gayo Mill
Region: Aceh
Processing Method: Washed
Elevation: 1,300-1,650 msl
Variety: Ateng, Bor Bor, Catimor, and Timor

This coffee comes from a small mill in the Pegasing district of Takengon, in Sumatra's coffee-famous Aceh region ran by Cup of Excellence winner Asman Arianto. The Asman Gayo mill serves several small coffee producers within the Pantan Musara villages. Several years ago, these producers were dislocated from their homes and land because of a natural disaster, and they have rebuilt their lives and farms with a new focus on coffee. Unlike the vast majority of other Sumatran coffee receiving and processing centers, this mill is producing Washed coffees, as well as Naturals.

Farmers delivers coffee to the mill where, for washed coffees, only fresh red cherries can be purchased. The washed coffees are fermented for 36 hours after being depulped, then washed four times to remove the mucilage. They are then spread into a drying house or on raised tables to dry for about 14 days.

If you’ve pigeon-holed Sumatran coffees as being very earthy with flat acidities, think again! Because of the extra care taken in the processing of this coffee, it has a much cleaner, sweeter profile with a pleasant mild to medium acidity.

We taste: melon, pear, cola

Farm: several hundred local smallholder farmers
Region: Eastern Highlands
Processing Method: Washed
Elevation: 1,400-1,900 msl
Varieties: Arusha, Bourbon, Typica

We love to offer coffees from Indonesia, specifically Papua New Guinea, as often as we can because of their unique, yet crowd-pleasing flavors, mild acidity, and heavy body. This coffee comes from Namugo, which is the local name in the Okapa dialect for the mountainous rainforest region in which the coffee grows in the Eastern Highlands.

The majority of coffee production in PNG comes from smallholder farmers, each with around 1–2 hectares called “gardens” in which they grow small amounts of coffee and other subsistence crops. Less than 3% of the country is used for commercial agriculture, and forest makes up more than 63% of Papua New Guinea’s landscape.

Most of the coffee in Papua New Guinea is processed as Washed lots. Because of the very small size of the average farm, it is done at central processing units or washing stations that are privately or cooperatively owned and operated. The coffee is picked ripe and typically depulped the same day, then fermented for 24–48 hours before being washed clean of mucilage. Drying is typically done on tarpaulins or raised beds.

In the cup, this earthy, herbaceous coffee is balanced with a pleasant, mellow acidity that reminds us of cola, honeydew melon, and pear. It has a creamy, syrupy body and holds up well in milk.