Tag Archives: Indonesia

Coffee. Oh, I love drinking coffee and love talking about coffee. If I think back, what my first introduction was to coffee, I think back to the time when I was a child. As a little child, I was often left home alone during the day with nannies and with my grandmother since both of my parents worked full-time. I was practically raised by my grandmother, who was not only a kretek smoker  (some years later she quit both of it ), she also often indulged herself with kopi tubruk (it is Indonesian style of drinking coffee, where the coarse ground coffee is mixed with hot boiling water and added with generous amount of sugar). She loved Torabika* coffee, drank it at least thrice a day. She enjoyed that rituals with all her heart…I always sat next to her as a little kid, obeyed her when she told me not to drink the big mug of kopi tubruk in front of us. But, I was just too curious seeing my nana enjoyed that forbidden beverage everyday very much, I stole a sip or two from her one day when she was not around. And I thought, hmmm..this is not too bad.

My fondness for coffee continued when I moved to another continent. I drank more and more coffee than I did back home when I was living in Germany. Due to the cold temperatures I drank more coffee than I wanted to and before I knew, I became addicted to it. I drank more of cappuccino instant coffee that time (so pathetic..). Because that was the kind of coffee I could afford. However, whenever I have some extra money I would treat myself some good coffee at the local cafe or Konditorei.

For my 26th birthday, J bought me a cute espresso machine from DeLonghi which I am still using until this very moment.

Ever since, I have been learning about the history of coffee, and have been reading quite a lot about coffee industry in the world. I learned that Indonesia was the fourth biggest coffee-producing nation in the world (2010-2011 crop year). Brazil took the first spot followed by Vietnam and the third place was taken by Colombia. Do you know that there is no national association of coffee growers in Indonesia?! In Colombia they have Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia. Not only they regulate the industry, the federation also supports research and development in the production of coffee through grants to local universities and through federation sponsored research institutes. The federation also monitors production to ensure export quality standards are met. Admit it, Indonesians do not really consume coffee religiously like people in Colombia. But why? we have darn good coffee beans we export throughout the world and we are not drinking it, instead we are drinking Starbucks coffee which uses the crappiest coffee bean there is Shame on us.

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