COFFEE is our passion, not our business. We have been roasting coffee at our roaster in Jakarta since 2003 and in Kuala Lumpur since 2010.

Now we are heavily involved in the Philippines market and through our Philippines flagship cafe, we believe our experience will allow us to offer tailor made solutions to cafe customer here in Philippines and through to Macau and mainland China.

The coffee beans you see after the roasting process have come a long way from where they started, as "cherries" on Arabica plants. Coffee trees flower twice a year, the flowers being fragrant, white bunches that hang from the trees. Only 25% of these flowers will go on to be fertilised and produce small buds that later grow into coffee beans. The beans take several months to ripen. Once they have reached a level of ripeness where the outer skin turns red, the picking begins. The majority of our partners hand pick, so the selection process is far better than the bigger estates that often strip pick using machinery.

Arabica trees can grow up to 30 foot tall, if not pruned. Most farmers try and keep their trees to around 8 foot or shorter, so the cherries can easily be reached during picking. The seasons for picking vary across the archipelago. In Sumatra the season runs from November to January, in Java from late July through to September.

The estates and farmers we purchase from use one of two different methods to process the picked cherries into what's called "green coffee". The "dry" method is predominately used in Sumatra and by small hold farmers in Java, Bali and Flores. This method involves drying the beans outside under the sun. The beans are laid out either on a concrete pad, or on sacking laid out on the side of the road. The process can take several weeks. Over this time the beans are raked and turned as often as needed to ensure a universal drying effect is achieved. Once the outer area of the bean begins to fall off, the coffee is ready to have the pulp removed. Normally this is done by machinery- although some of these mulching machines are still hand driven! The final product is a green bean, about 1/3 rd of the size of the original cherry.

The second method of drying coffee is the "wet" processing system. Wet processing means the bean can begin the final preparation stage immediately after being picked. Instead of drying under the sun the cherries are processed through a water system. This leads to the outer skin softening making it easy to remove. The system works well although there are often times when the sugar in the beans can ferment, causing the flavour of the beans to be affected. Most large estates in Java use this system as it speeds up processing and generally makes selection of the final green bean much easier. The quality of green bean from wet processing is generally higher.

The processed beans are always packed in standard 60kg bags for transportation from the estate or village to our facility in Bukit Sentul. We supply our partners with burlap sacks to ensure the coffee is able to breathe. Burlap is also the best medium for long-term storage of coffee beans.

To roast the perfect bean we searched the world for a rotary roaster that would allow us to control every stage of the process. Many modern machines are controlled by computer processors, but like fine wine-making, roasting requires the roast master to be able to add his own personal touch to the process. Our machine is a classic drum roaster from Antigua, Guatemala. It was used by a highland estate to roast plump Guatemalan coffee cherries before we purchased, renovated and shipped her to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines.

With our drum roaster secured we searched for the perfect place to roast. We decided to base ourselves in the mountain town of Bukit Sentul, near the old Dutch resort (now city) of Bogor. Here the air is fresher, cleaner and the climate is perfect for warehousing and roasting of our beans. As for Kuala Lumpur, we had placed the roaster together with our cafes. While in Philippines, at a prominent warehouse which able to function as a central distribution centre for northern Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau, and China.

These days we do not only roast, but also export green beans around the world! We consider ourselves to be champions for the small coffee shop & home roasters all over the globe. With access to such a wide range of unique beans we take great pride in promoting what we consider to be the best that Indonesia has to offer.

Why is our coffee so good? Because Antipodean Coffee only purchases coffee beans directly from our partners, who are small-holding growers, rather than going through the brokerage system.

Through Antipodean Coffee's network of Antipodean Cafes, we'd served over 2,500,000 million cups as at April this year... mainly to fussy expatriates. We reckon that if our coffee survives the tastebuds of our demanding patrons, the coffee must be pretty good!

Below are some of the speciality coffee beans available through Antipodean Coffee:-