Three Mountains, Three Cups: A Trip Through Our Origin Regions

You can explain terroir in a paragraph, or you can taste it in three cups. This is the paragraph version. The cups come later.

Gayo Highlands, Aceh, Sumatra. 1,200 to 1,700m

At the northern tip of Sumatra, around Lake Tawar, the Gayo Highlands are one of the most respected arabica regions in Asia. Coffee arrived here in the early 20th century and became the backbone of the Gayonese economy. Almost all of it is smallholder grown under shade, much of it organic by default and certified through some of the largest Fairtrade cooperatives in the world. Traditional wet hulling gives Gayo its signature: heavy body, a velvet texture, dark chocolate, cedar, warm spice and a long earthy finish. This is the cup people mean when they say a coffee tastes like Sumatra, except Gayo does it with a cleanness and sweetness that commodity lots never reach.

Temanggung, Central Java. The slopes of Sindoro and Sumbing

Between two volcanoes in Central Java sits Temanggung, a district better known for tobacco until its coffee started getting attention. This is old coffee land. Java has grown coffee for more than 300 years, longer than almost anywhere outside Ethiopia and Yemen. Temanggung arabica is the modern chapter of that story, grown on deep volcanic soil and often handled with real care by a younger generation of farmers. The cup is cleaner and brighter than Sumatra: gentle acidity, brown sugar sweetness, notes of spice and orange zest. The robusta from the same slopes is among the most respected in Java. Drinking Temanggung is drinking the direct descendant of the coffee that gave Java its name.

Bajawa Plateau and Nola Wonga, Flores. 1,300m and up

Flores, the island of flowers, is the origin still flying under the radar, and we don’t think that lasts much longer. On the Bajawa Plateau, in the shadow of the Inerie volcano, the Ngada people grow arabica in shade gardens on rich volcanic soil, organised through village cooperatives. The cup is unlike anywhere else in Indonesia: floral and sweet, with a syrupy body, dark chocolate and a hazelnut caramel finish. It tastes like the softness of the island. Our work with the Nola Wonga estate lets us bring a traceable, consistent Flores lot to the UK, which very few British companies can offer.

Three regions. One archipelago. Completely different cups, which is the point we’ve been making all series. Indonesia is not one origin. It’s many.

This trio is how we build coffee programmes for our partners: a trip across the islands your guests can taste, glass by glass.

The BRUUK Discovery Pack puts all three origins side by side. For hospitality partners we run guided team cuppings. Message us to arrange one.

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