adri’s dream

Studying abroad only made Adri think about his country more. When he witnessed how wine was such a representative product in France, where he studied marketing, he wondered how a product from Indonesia could become relevant to the world. Wine has represented France since the Middle Ages, if not before that, just as Indonesia represented coffee since it was a Dutch colony, but years of low prices and unfair trade practices have not done Indonesia’s coffee industry any justice. For him, bringing an Indonesian product to the world meant spreading the message that Indonesia has so much to offer.

For some years, however, he mostly worked in the corporate world in Jakarta, but corporate life wasn't for him. One day, when on vacation, he found himself on a coffee farm that sadly wasn't doing very well. "The product was great," says Adri, "but they didn't know how to sell it." Soon after, Adri decided to work with these farmers. For two years he managed his corporate job in Jakarta while working pro-bono for this group. He became their marketing supporter, aiding them in negotiating with potential buyers. When results started manifesting, the farmers asked Adri to join them for good and become their marketing partner. They offered him a commission and a better price. Adri said, "yes," and Ontosoroh was born. 

When we met with Adri, it quickly became apparent that we represented each other's values. We both see ourselves as “means” to empower others; we aim for others to grow so that, at one point, we might not even be needed anymore. Ontosoroh is inspired by a character from an Indonesian novel whose mission is to do business professionally and ethically. Working with Adri since 2016, we know that he honours this character’s reputation!

 

These are the farmer groups, cooperatives and family enterprises
Ontosoroh brought together.

Onotosoroh started working with 1 organisations and 5 farmers. Today, it’s a consolidated company formed by 7 employees.
They work with around 10 organisations and 434 farmers from three different islands. 

 

full time workers: 300; associated: 1200. 15 villages producing capacity per family: 500 to 600 kilos
hectares: 400

members:16
hectares: 28

workers: 16
hectares: 28

members: 150; farmer groups 7 (4 women groups)
hectares: 60

 

members: 60
hectares: 25

workers: 100
hectares: 300

workers: 20
hectares: 20

 

Ontosoroh is central to all our Indonesian value chains. They oversee the local transport from the islands to the international port of Surabaya and coordinate communication with all the farmers and coop staff directly.

TRACEABILITY

You can find all the signed contracts and shipping documents that we made with Argote since 2021 below (Google Drive).

 

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

2016: our partnership is born. We create a cross-industry partnership to promote and upgrade specialty robusta from Flores.

2017: first pilot shipment from Ontosoroh to Europe.

2018: we jointly created semi-washed and fully washed drying experiments that gave more insights into how best to highlight Flores Robusta's unique flavour profile.

2019: with the help of Pak Dominggus, in the village of Buntu Ledo set up a cooperative structure in 2019 (Koperasi Buntu Ledo Sipporanu) with Ontosoroh and This Side Up as stable buying partners. Together, we created a step by step manual with checkboxes to improve quality during the harvest and post-harvest with positive results.  

2020: we landed a tender to supply the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and increase our order from 160 to 600 bags. This major increase required a lot of extra training on the part of ASNIKOM to see to the required quality. As an added incentive, we decided to up the farmgate price to 4,14 USD/kg. labelled every single bag according to the farmer. The cupping scores greatly improve.

2021: retained the same amount of coffee bags and price as 2021 despite the pandemic. The Circular Fashion Project and the Regenerative Robusta Project is born.  

2022: three new coffee groups join our portfolio: Java Candiroto, Java Sunda Tilu, and Gowa Malino.

2023: the productivity some of our partners suffered this year due to climate change brings new challenges and possibilities in our collaboration. Diversification, soil quality, and chemical-free processing have become increasingly relevant to our partners at origin.

2024: Adri came up with a project proposal we decided to support: the creation of weatherproof drying facilities in Flores. For this project, the budget is around Rp 77.217.000 (EUR 4815) for eight drying hut units.


Our QC’s Flavour impressions

This season Indonesian arabica is a pure caleidoscoop of flavours. Sindoro lots came as a very expressive and fruity, almost fermenty cups, very layered and complex. Sunda Tilu honey was my favourite, it is a very unique profile of floral tea with a tiny bit of spices - we can’t really recall anything like that in our 250+ coffee portfolio. Washed lot went a bit down this year due to a different mix of varieties. Coffee from Toroja despite some inconsistencies between cups, feels quite solid, if you are looking for sweet and balanced cup with notes of berries and milk chocolate-you found it.

Sunda Tilu coop lot - honey 2024

Roasting Advice

For Indonesian arabicas we found our way with two Ikawa profiles : Washed Asia and Natural. The Natural profile works pretty much always for honey, naturals and unique processes. It gives a great result to grasp the potential of such lots. Washed sometimes might give a more ‘developed’ cup, here feel free to adjust drop temperature on 1-2 degrees lower. For production roasts we can recommend you to stretch the end of your roast while keeping your gas a bit tamed, that helps with cup’s mouthfeel and balancing out the end profile.


 
 
 

Adri Yahdiyan

Our main coordinator in Indonesia is Adri Yahdiyan of Ontosoroh. He embodies This Side Up’s vision and ideals beautifully, exports to Europe and Japan, and is keen to set up new business relations.
 

Email: adri@ontosoroh.co.id
Phone: +62 857 4385 9181

 
 
 

Pokoh, Wedomartani, Ngemplak, Sleman Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta 55584, Indonesia

 
 

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS ROBUSTA

This Speciality Robusta project that began several years ago between ASNIKOM and This Side Up in cooperation with Ontosorroh coffees was developed with an intent to be climate resilient. Robusta being native to Flores and ASNIKOM being prepared to process them according to specialty standards paved way for a unique partnership and product in the market. Initially Adri was playing a supporting role for ASNIKOM translating contracts and negotiating with buyers since he was fluent in English and Indonesian as language was one of the biggest barriers for ASNIKOM that made it hard to promote and sell their coffees. They also asked for his help in finding buyers. This triggered Adri to start reaching out to several importers across Europe including This Side Up sending cold emails, only to receive warmth from Lennart as he heard about Fine Robusta from Flores and was looking for ways to import it. Adri sent several samples of arabica and to fill the container up, the Robusta was thrown in as a bonus which Lennart loved and thought was one of the best Asian Robusta he had ever tasted. When discussing over the best way to do this, he requested if Adri himself could export the coffees. This led to the birth of Ontosorroh and our first specialty Robusta project - two ‘fine’ partnerships!

  • ASNIKOM abbreviated into Asosiasi Petani Kopi Manggarai is a coffee cooperative in Flores with over 1000 farmers from 15 villages with average land size between 0.5 to 3 hectares . It was formed as an association in 2010. Around then, the leaders of ASNIKOM were invited to go to the Netherlands to have an in depth understanding of a cooperative system by learning more from the dairy industry. With the help of Rikoloto (a Belgian NGO then called Veco) that supported with farmer training and capacity building as well access to capital, ASNIKOM equipped itself to become a full fledged cooperative by 2014.

    In 2013-2014, they also won the first prize at SCA Indonesia for their fine Robusta. Although they had a great quality coffee, they still didn’t have access to markets that would pay a good price for their coffees. Having studied the successes of specialty robusta in India and Ecuador, we thought of the idea of upgrading the existing, low growing robusta on the island of Flores. Through Adri Yahdiyan, founder of Ontosoroh Coffees, we learned that not only does the island boast a range of unique robusta varieties, but that the quality of these "fine robustas" was already known worldwide. He then introduced us to ASNIKOM, a locally owned cooperative in the regency of Manggarai who could do something as radical as intuitive: process Robusta with the same machinery and standards as arabica - and we vowed to pay them the same premium as they would get for fine arabicas.

    In the last few years, ASNIKOM and it’s members have seen several improvements to their lives and livelihood because of selling their Specialty Robusta to This Side Up. They have been able to send their children to school, build better houses even pave roads which was once a far fetched dream. Yet there is still a long way to go for this community. ASNIKOM aspires to be a full fledged marketing cooperative where they would act as agents of the farmers in selling their coffee. But, due to limited access to human resources and capital now they are involved in several different parts of the value chain aiding farmers to create the end product in the most flexible way possible.

    Other challenges include less youth and women involved in coffee, access to market information, busting myths about specialty robusta, debts and biggest one of them all - unpredictable weather patterns. Being one of the poorest regions that still earns most of the income from coffee, they know that they need to be prepared in more ways than just producing good quality coffee. Currently ASNIKOM supports it’s members to enroll for a Farmer field school where they get trained on preharvest and post harvest techniques. The farmer school is free for the farmers to attend whilst the cooperative tries to find a sponsor for each batch allowing 15-20 farmers to attend this school. Further, they have been working on strategizing for the most efficient Agroforestry Model (combination of climate resilient species and the canopy tree) that can help stabilize productivity as well as farmer income structurally. With more youth getting involved in coffee production and catching up with ‘digital’ ways to be present in the market place, ASNIKOM is hopeful to put Fine Robusta much more prominently on the global market.

 

CULTIVARS

Unique robusta varieties derived from natural cross-pollination.

elevation

1200-1600 meters

NOTABLE

Currently ASNIKOM is focusing on developing a digital presence on social media and finally have youth that can speak English get involved into the operations. Farmers use organic fertilizers from cattle for their soil and the coffees are grown ‘organic’ by default often intercropped with banana, ginger, avocado, papaya, cinnamon depending on the elevation. They are also setting up demo plots (2 for arabica and 2 for Robusta) to experiment and find the best agroforestry model. To be prepared for El Nino for the coming years, they want to plant Calliandra during the wet season and then stomp it during the dry season as a mulching strategy.

 

PROCESSING

honey : the coffee cherries are handpicked in the morning and pulped immediately by sunset on site. Each families have these huts in the middle of the plantation to pulp and semi dry the coffees before taking them to the final UPH to be fully dried.

natural : coffee cherries handpicked and laid out on beds immediately between 10 and 14 days.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

 
  • The price you pay for Rende Nao’s Robusta natural and honey coffee p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • Here farm gate is the price paid per kg of green beans to ASNIKOM directly. ASNIKOM buys different products including cherries, parchment and sometimes also green beans, keeping it flexible to support farmers. This decision is influenced because of the reality where farmers might not always have the time/capital to deliver it as green beans. ASNIKOM coordinates with different village coordinators who also are responsible for purchase from their farmers and processing if needed. ASNIKOM and in turn Ontosoroh buys green beans. Farmers have access to mobile pulpers that go around which they use to process their batch of the coffee. Other coffees in this list are priced as follows :

    Flores Rende Nao Natural : € 4,52

  • Ontosoroh buys green beans from Farmer groups and exports them to the Netherlands. They incur costs for transportation, warehousing, re-bagging, Final Quality controlling, Freight and customs. They travel to each origin atleast once a year to do harvest planning, share feedback and support with various innovations based on available market information.
    Exporter costs for the other coffees in this profile are :

    Flores Rende Nao Natural : € 0,50

  • International shipping from Semarang, Java to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative projects. Read mor e about 2024 update regarding how the funds were utilized so far under 2024 update

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for ASNIKOM. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page


Contact damasus agas

Pak Damasus is fluent in Indoneisan and answers your emails promptly for all kinds of partnership possibilities as well as questions about the coffee.

TEL : 6285239201354

FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

 
 

robusta that will leave you ‘pining’ for more!

Adri from Ontosoroh Coffee had his first introduction to the Robusta from Batang through an acquaintance that sent samples and explained the story of how he and his friends organised a youth group that focused on agroforestry management and added value activities. The organisation was called "Sapta Wening", their main mission being to initiate an economic opportunity for their members (mainly youths aged around 17-30ish working odd jobs) in the pine forest surrounding their village without cutting a single tree. In 2016 they started to plant robustas between the pine trees in three plots (~1 ha each) and to encourage existing coffee farmers to rejuvenate as well as improving agricultural practices for their robustas.

Before, and the majority still is, robusta coffees in the area traded even lower than the R price benchmark of Rp 14.000 per kilo (many farmers would accept prices as low as Rp 10.000 per kilo), for low quality local grown robusta. The guys from Sapta Wening wanted to change this and begun processing better grade robustas from their family farms and introduced it to local cafe, roasteries, and the roasted version as well. The profits they received were re-invested in: a) opening up their own local coffee shop in the pine forest, b) opening up new coffee plots, c) improving the facility of surrounding places of interest, especially the Curug Genting waterfall. Again, all done by trying without cutting a single tree.

Ontosoroh really liked their combination of youth-centred as well as sustainable agroforestry business model and thus at first bought some small batches and then helping them with some equity to buy red cherries for them to process. And the result was the coffee that Maarten tasted when he visited in the summer of 2019. It was this moment of pleasant surprise that Maarten encountered in the summer of 2019. He was sitting in a pine forest, which looked like the lower Alps, but oddly, he was at a coffee plantation in Eastern Java. In between the pine trees of this magnificent forest, both arabica and robusta are grown. This was a trial project of our Indonesian export Adri Yahdiyan from Ontosoroh coffee - and it turned out to be a great gamble.

As Adri says: “I think definitely the most important and interesting part of this project is the youth-led movement to improve the economic situation of their village through coffee and any other means. There are too many instances in the coffee world that cultivation and improvement stopped because of failed regeneration of farmers. They also have an interesting business model where they combined the forest sustainability aspect and other areas such as tourism, F&B services as a source of economic opportunity rather than a competing industry. All done collectively and independently. We really like their idea.”

Sapta Wening, as the cooperative organisation is called, is the perfect This Side Up partner. It exists because of their mission to initiate an economic opportunity for youth aged 17-30 year old in the pine forest surrounding their village, without cutting a single tree. In this sense it is a social youth project, and agroforestry project, a specialty coffee project and a fine robusta project, all in one.


 

CULTIVARS

SA-436 or as the locals call it: Kopi Java.

elevation

750 - 1,100 meters above sea level.

NOTABLE

Organically grown by default in natural pine forest. Great flavour complexity of dark berries, white pepper, cedar and herbs.

PROCESSING

Pulped natural, honey processed fine robusta: Dried on open bamboo pole beds. All manually picked, pulped and hulled.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

 
  • The price you pay for Sapto Wening robusta p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • The farmer group is paid for per kg of green beans sorted which is delivered to the exporter.

  • Ontosoroh buys green beans from Farmer groups and exports them to the Netherlands. They incur costs for transportation, warehousing, re-bagging, Final Quality controlling, Freight and customs. They travel to each origin atleast once a year to do harvest planning, share feedback and support with various innovations based on available market information.

  • International shipping from Semarang, Java to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Sapto Wening. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page


Contact WASTURI

Wasturi is fluent in Indonesian and can be reached through phone to answer all your questions about coffee as well as potential partnerships.

TEL : (62)85647382759
INSTAGRAM

 

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Sapta Wening’s coffee amongst your customers.

 

Coffee is the smoking gun

Located between Mount Sindoro and Mount Sumbing is the home of 2 groups, Kojoyo cooperative and First Light coffee.

Farmers from the Kojoyo cooperative predominantly produce arabica and are spread across 6 districts in Temanggung region. Out of which 4 districts made of 250 farmers produce specialty arabica. This cooperative is headed by Wahyu Setiono who has many accolades to his name. Majored in theology, Wahyu orrginally wanted to become a priest!

In 2019, when he was a coffee trader, he came across the wonderous world of processing coffees in so many different ways. Around that time, he also entered a coffee competition with his robusta and it ranked 11th in the list. Through these events, he had the opportunity to taste coffees from across the world that was also inspired him to dip his toes into this realm. He felt he was more than capable of trying and mastering these different methods himself. He started getting serious about processing coffees and strongly believed it is a form of art that needs to be structured and detailed. He underwent training on cupping, processing both basic and advanced levels with a teacher from Java Legend, an Indonesian coffee school that specialized in farm to cup education.

Wahyu founded Kojoyo in 2019 with an intent to make economic impact for farmers that were interested to produce specialty coffee. This region because of it’s altitude specializes in Arabica and very little robusta. Along with his experience, his thoroughness when it came production, processing protocols, quickly made it possible for them to start becoming profitable. In 2020, this coop added a new mission, partnering with Indonesia’s Counter Terrorism Body (BNPT), to counter Islamic radicalization agenda by empowering farmers and rehabilitated terrorists on the area the chance for self employment through coffee cultivation and coffee tourism. Out of 250 members, 5-6 of them are ex-imprisoned radical Islamic terrorists who have now turned coffee farmers, thanks to Wahyu! Currently the government has dedicated 100 hectares of land for this project out of which 30 are productive with speciality coffee and expanding the rest in the coming years.

Another big bad wolf in this region apart from breeding grounds for terrorism is cultivating tobacco. Not only is it nherently destroying the environment but since the demand for tobacco has reduced drastically, it leaves behind the farmers as usual to find other ways to survive. Kojoyo was also born because of this reason, to support as many farmers in this region to switch from tobacco to coffee and to grow it in a sustainable way. By growing coffee organically, it allows them to replenish the land and also improve their livelihoods simultaenously. For Wahyu, coffee is a tool that allows farmers to come out of these disadvantaged situations. Lastly, this region also was privy to 2 cyclones last season and in general unpredictable weather patterns that tend to cause sufficient rampage on their progress. Wahyu’s understanding of wanting to create grassroot changes is well reflected in his effort to start focusing on soil, planting windbreakers, setting up a centralized organic fertilizer producing unit and working together with like minded people.


The same kind of values shared by Cahyo, founder of First Light coffee. Cahyo Pertama, whose name literally translates to First light is a 31 year old entrepreneur that is leading the youth movement from Candiroto village in the Temanggung district. Coffee has been part of his family although his parents have been spice traders all their life. Originally this village used to have excelsa variety that never really made the cut making robusta this region’s native species. Although coffee wouldn’t be the first choice for many of the youth that are part of his group, finding jobs that could pay bills was getting difficult. More of younger members came together to discuss this and see how they could help themselves find stable alternatives. Since most of them had coffee in their family and it was evident demand for higher quality coffee seemed promising. 20 of them together with Cahyo decided to give specialty coffee a try out of which roughly 10 of them were first time coffee planters. Incomes from coffee allowed them to also improve their ‘image’ in the society, it was profitable and doing it together enabled access to knowledge, resources easily. Even though he tried to work with bigger cooperatives, it was not until Kojoyo, he experienced an equal partnership.

For both the groups the upcoming season, focus lies on improving productivity, creating stricter quality protocols, working on processing innovation, creating organic fertilizers for the community in bulk, traceability and of course, finding new buyers!

 

CULTIVARS

Arabica Kartika 30%, Lini S 50%, Sigararutang 10%
Robusta BP 30% Tugusari 70%

elevation

1600-1800 masl for Sindoro Arabica
800-1100 masl for Candiroto Robusta

NOTABLE

The Sindoro group produces and processes Arabica and Candiroto farmer group produces and processes Robusta. Since Kojoyo also works with different set of farmer groups in Candiroto for Robusta, Wahyu and Cahyo decided to join forces. Cahyo and his group from this year onwards will work with Kojoyo to export coffee. They will also do different projects together such as soil testing, producing organic fertilizer etc whose benefits can be reaped by both groups. Kojoyo has already been sharing profits with it’s members by paying dividends to them based on the volume of cherries they sold to the cooperative. Since both Wahyu and Cahyo have a similar business model for Arabica/Robusta respectively, operate with similar values and they have comparable annual incomes, joining forces makes them much stronger.

 

PROCESSING

Java Sindoro Natural Hydro Process : Only the ripest of red cherries are picked after which they are fermented in tank with Intenso yeast strain for 6 days. Open air drying on raised beds for 3 days. Closed drying in a dome for 14 days and allowing to rest for 7 days. After which its again dried for 7 days in dome until desired moisture is attained. The dried cherries are allowed to rest for 1 month, hulled and hand sorted.

Java Sindoro Double Fermentation : Only the ripest of the red cherries are picked. First fermentation is an anerobic dry fermentation in a tank for 3 days. Second one is a submerged fermentation with no yeast for 4 days. Open air drying for 3 days, closed dome drying for 14 days, rest for 7 days. After which its again dried for 7 days in dome until desired moisture is attained. The dried cherries are allowed to rest for 1 month, hulled and hand sorted.

Java Candiroto Natural : Ripest of the red cherries are being picked and they undergo a submersion after which they pulped. Dry fermentation in plastic sacks for 2 days. Open air drying for 10 days, rest for 7 days. Hulled and sorted to export grade.

Java Candiroto Robusta Anaerobic Natural : Ripest of the red cherries are picked, cherry submersion and then pupled. For Tugusari, cherries are in Dry Fermentation in an anaerob tank for 5 days, while BP submerged fermentation in an anerob tank for 5 days to have body and preserve the sweetness. Open-air drying on raised beds for 15 days. Resting for 1 month, hulling and then sorting to export grade.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

 
  • The price you pay for Kojoyo’s Arabica/Robusta coffee p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • The above is the price of Sindoro Natural double fermentation Arabica. Wahyu and Cahyo buy cherries from farmers, process it to green beans by themselves. Farmers get paid for their cherries, this farm gate is inclusive of Kojoyo as well as Cahyo’s fee for processing, quality control, sorting, storing and transporting it to Jogja to Ontosoroh as green beans. Other coffees in this list and their farm gate are as follows :

    Sindoro Natural Hydro Fermentation (Arabica) : €9,43
    Candiroto Robusta Honey : €4,09
    Candiroto Robusta Anaerobic Natural : €4,28

  • The above is the price of Sindoro Natural double fermentation Arabica. Ontosoroh buys green beans from Farmer groups and exports them to the Netherlands. They incur costs for transportation, warehousing, re-bagging, Final Quality controlling, Freight and customs. They travel to each origin atleast once a year to do harvest planning, share feedback and support with various innovations based on available market information.

    Exporter costs for the other coffees in this profile are :
    Sindoro Natural Hydro Fermentation (Arabica) : €0,17

    Candiroto Robusta Honey : €0,71

    Candiroto Robusta Anaerobic Natural : € 0,67

  • International shipping from Semarang, Java to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.


    Sindoro Natural Hydro Fermentation (Arabica) : €0,39


    Candiroto Robusta Honey : €0,35

    Candiroto Robusta Anaerobic Natural : € 0,35

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.
    Sindoro Natural Hydro Fermentation (Arabica) : €0,73

    Candiroto Robusta Honey : €0,37

    Candiroto Robusta Anaerobic Natural : € 0,39

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Kojoyo. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page


 

regnerating dreams

A native of Pangalengan, Asep was the last of 5 brothers and sisters. Growing up he wanted to be Veterinarian but their family couldn’t afford it. After completing the minimum requirements after his high school, he was able to  join as an assistant doctor at a dairy factory where he worked for over 30 years. He then worked in dairy processing for 5 years thereafter. Asep had roughly 0.8 hectares of coffee in early 2000 and didn’t particularly pay attention to it since Pangalengan was a dairy heavy origin. Once he decided to retire, he knew how he was going to spend the rest of his life - with coffee, not just drinking it but growing coffee.

 Asep’s aspirations included being able to find connections beyond his village and coffee was just the way to do it. Asep is known for his thoroughness when it came to doing any job so when he began researching the different coffee models there was, everything about specialty caught his attention. He understood that it was one of the best ways to increase productivity and essentially income. Asep realised through efficient farm management and consistent crop cycles it would be possible to achieve his dreams of maximised productivity. This became the driving force behind his approach to agriculture, especially coffee farming. 

Once a dairy intensive context, with the milk prices stagnant, farmers in this region have been looking for ways to switch to something that generates higher income. Although vegetable farming might be an option, it is not bought based on a price quality differential. Even though the local government is encouraging farmers to start growing coffee so it helps with improving the environment other than helping them earn a higher income, not all is done well to nurture this dream. They distributed seedlings that remained fairly unproductive. Further it is difficult to challenge the traditional farming methods and get farmers to try something new. They have been risk averse until Asep entered the scene.

Asep’s effort to introduce specialty coffee in this region is catching up fast. Asep in that way is a pioneer when it comes to specialty production and processing techniques.Now more than 40 farmers work with Asep in selling him cherries so he can process them into different grades including premium and speciality. They get a higher price for their coffees and can use it to improve their livelihoods including sending their children to school among other things. His effort to create access of different kinds to the community is quite evident. From distributing seedlings of native coffee varieties that are resilient, to conducting training on composting, land preparation, plant plotting, as well planting shade trees, Asep has been the frontrunner in taking these initiatives to the community after testing it out in his own land.

Specialty coffee and Pak Asep come as a saving grace in many regards to this region! 

 

CULTIVARS

HDT, Ateng Super and Sigararutang

elevation

1450 -1560 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

The ethnic group here is called Sundanese and the closest mountain to this village is Mount Tilu. Hence Sunda Tilu!

Coffee here is intercropped with chilies, banana, potato, tomato and cabbage. Asep currently uses a mix of cow, chicken, goat manure with cascara and M4 store bought yeast starter to make the fertilizer. Many of the farmers that work with him also currently buy store bought organic fertilizers. Asep is also experimenting on a few of his own plots by planting single variety coffee in each individual plot to test the productivity and is open to seeing how it will perform in the market. Together with Ontosorh and Asep, his son-in law are looking into building a centralized processing unit and drying facility so they can focus on quality control as well as having capacity to work with more famers from the village. They have the land and work for this is underway, expected to come to fruition by the end of next year.

.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

 
  • The price you pay for Sunda Tilu washed/honey coffee p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • Asep buys cherries from farmers and then uses his infrastructure to process, mill the coffee to final green beans which is how it is bought by Ontosoroh. Farm gate here is inclusive of what is paid to the farmers for cherries and post harvesting that includes - pulping to hulling, sorting, quality control and storing.
    Sunda Tilu Honey : € 8,81

  • Ontosoroh buys green beans from Farmer groups and exports them to the Netherlands. They incur costs for transportation, warehousing, re-bagging, Final Quality controlling, Freight and customs. They travel to each origin atleast once a year to do harvest planning, share feedback and support with various innovations based on available market information.

    Exporter costs for the other coffees in this profile are :

    Sunda Tilu Honey : €0,44

  • International shipping from Semarang, Java to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

    Sunda Tilu Honey : €0,39

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

    Sunda Tilu Honey : €0,70

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Sunda Tilu. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page


Contact Tediana Priadi

Tedi is Asep’s son-in law, he also grows coffee and works closely with Asep in helping him on finances, book keeping, sales as well as processing coffee during harvest season. He speaks basic English and is fluent in Indonesian. He based out of Bandung and is easily reachable via call/whatsapp

Phone : +628814516488

 
 

WILD FLAVOURS FROM AN ASTOUNDING CULTURE

In the summer of 2019, Maarten van Keulen visited the farmers in Buntu Ledo. The culture he saw there was unlike anything he was prepared for. The otherworldly architecture of the houses aside (see pictures), the Torajan treatment of their dead is something unlike any modern culture —and reminiscent of ancient, neolithic cultures throughout the planet. 

To Torajans, the death of a loved one is not final and death itself is viewed as the single most important event of the life cycle. When a Torajan dies, the deceased is embalmed and placed at home. They are not considered dead until a funeral takes place, which could be months or years later. In the interim, they are deemed as sick and household members tend to them round the clock with food and beverages. They are treated as guests, and it is not uncommon to have more than one sitting around in the home. So when Adri and Maarten arrived and were offered tea in one of the coop members' homes, it was a slight culture shock to see a deceased, embalmed family member sitting in a chair next to them. They also happened to arrive during the funeral ceremony and were treated as guests of honour.

As for the coffee, Toraja is one of the few places in Indonesia where arabica is the dominant species grown. It thrives in the highlands that are over 1500 meters above sea level, and has done so since the Dutch relocated some of Java's arabica production after an outbreak of leaf rust in the mid 19th century. We were definitely not the first to discover the uniqueness of this coffee's flavour profile: the Japanese have been steadily buying Torajan coffee since the 1990’s, prizing the S795 variety which supposedly is responsible for the coffee’s syrupy sweetness. Nonetheless, the region’s coffee sector went into decline. In the early 2000s, the government initiated several large scale coffee rejuvenation programs as a countermeasure, but unstable and low prices and complicated, unfair local value chains persisted, causing farmers to move away from coffee production. In Buntu Ledo, from the 500 farmers that were part of the rejuvenation program, only about 20 families remain.

In 2019, with the help of Pak Dominggus, the village of Buntu Ledo set up a cooperative structure in 2019 (Koperasi Buntu Ledo Sipporanu) with Ontosoroh and This Side Up as stable buying partners. As it is set up now, it has huge coffee potential. The 80 hectares of coffee plantation were relatively run down but the active farmers in the coop are starting to upgrade the land and take Ontosoroh’s processing specialism to heart. The high prices Ontosoroh and This Side Up pay, have in turn gotten the surrounding farmers to start talking. In 2020, we have therefore jointly decided to import the neighbouring farmers’ lot in Bunto Pepasan as well. After a very enthusiastic reception of the first harvest in Europe, in 2020 we were confident to triple our order from Buntu Ledo. This immediately triggered more farmers to want to join the project and Adri proposed to create a second lot from outgrower farmers, which we named Buntu Pepasan. This second lot was processed according to similar standards as Buntu Ledo proper, but exhibited significantly more quakers. Training was required to let this second experimental lot shine with its full potential, which is what was invested in with the premium we paid. 

In a region where many waves of investment and disappointment have superseded each other, we do not want to disappoint the remaining passionate farmers and vow, as a company, to make sure to 1) reward the farmers consistently (100% above market prices!) for treating their unique coffee as well as they do and 2) keep coming back, year after year, as the Bunto Ledo project grows and evolves. 

 

CULTIVARS

Arabica S795 and Typica.

elevation

1,750 - 2,100 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

Farmers in Buntu Ledo are steadily becoming an independent collective and cooperative. Farmers in this group would like to have more say on their coffee. Coffee is grown with strict no slash and burn practices based on local customs law. It is shade grown with medium density. Alongside the newly established Koperasi Buntu Ledo Sipporanu co-op, Ontosoroh and the coop are initiating a path towards geographical indication (GI) in Buntu Ledo that could lead to the development of tourism and reignite more enthusiasm for coffee planting.

 

PROCESSING

Unclean washed: A very particular type of honey washing which we provokingly decided to call “unclean washed”. The coffee is pulped first then wet fermented: submerged / soaked in a water tank inside plastic bags for at least 48, up to 72 hrs. The difference with a full wash is that there is no additional water rinsing after fermentation. The coffees on the bags are simply drained and then dried on bamboo beds. The amount of mucilage left is somewhere between fully washed and pulped natural.

Washed: Red coffee cherries are handpicked in the moring and manually pulped in the afternoon. The pulped coffee is stored in plastic strawbags and submerged under a water tank for 48-72 hours fermentation. The coffee is then ligthly rinsed with running water and subsequently dirend on raised bamboo beds for 12-16 days.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

 
  • The price you pay for Buntu Ledo washed coffee p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • The farmgate here is paid to farmers for delivering dry parchment to the group. The coffees are shipped in the parchment phase to Yogyakarta for further processing. The farm gate cover the costs of producing the coffee which includes farm management year around, labor and fertilizers.

  • Ontosoroh buys dry parchment from Farmer groups and hulls it for them at a facility in Randulanang in Klaten. The coffees are then sorted and exported to the Netherlands. They incur costs for transportation, warehousing, re-bagging, Final Quality controlling, Freight and customs. They travel to each origin atleast once a year to do harvest planning, share feedback and support with various innovations based on available market information.

  • International shipping from Semarang, Java to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Buntu Ledo washed. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page


Contact Riniaty Bulawan

Riniaty speaks basic English and is fluent in Indonesian. They can be contact via telephone directly.

TEL : +628123842451

 
 

GREATER TOGETHER

“Coffee business should be the means towards something greater and therefore the willingness to grow together is essential.”
Adri

When Adri met with the Parindingan heads he immediately noticed they functioned democratically. Parindingan was the right fit not only because they encourage women entrepreneurs, youth education and agroforestry, but because they proved strong to their values. Adri is already working on a business model together with this group of farmers, who after some disagreements with a larger cooperative, decided to try their luck independently. Today, they are defining a working structure within the organisation which includes diversifying their crops, in a project similar to what we jointly created in Flores. “The relationship is strong, and they are open for communication.” shares Adri, who also values their transparent and traceable system. Sadly, in 2023 their yield dropped 60%, but the higher prices and stable demand from our side will hopefully help them see these times through.

 

CULTIVARS

S795

elevation

1200-1500 meters above sea level.

NOTABLE

This is a newly formed farmer cooperative that envisions community development driven enterprise. It encourages women entrepreneurs, youth education, and agroforestry.

 

PROCESSING

Washed: cherries are harvested at their ripest point, pulped that same day and transferred into a washing station where coffee is fermented under water for 14 days. Coffee is then dried on racks under a closed roof hut.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

 
  • The price you pay for Parindingan coffee p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • Farmers deliver cherries to the group and are paid for it. The group then processes the coffee and delivers it as unsorted green beans to Ontosoroh which is then sorted to export grade at Yogyakarta. he farm gate cover the costs of producing the coffee which includes farm management year around, labor and fertilizers and processing until unsorted green beans stage.

  • Ontosoroh buys unsorted green beans from Farmer groups and are then sorted at the HQ and exported to the Netherlands. They incur costs for transportation, warehousing, re-bagging, Final Quality controlling, Freight and customs. They travel to each origin atleast once a year to do harvest planning, share feedback and support with various innovations based on available market information.

  • International shipping from Semarang, Java to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Parindingan. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page


Contact Riniaty Bulawan

Riniaty speaks basic English and is fluent in Indonesian. They can be contact via telephone directly.

TEL : +628123842451

 

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Parindingan’s coffee amongst your customers.

 

cARING FOR OUR COFFEE'S FUTURE

Indonesia's coffee is some of the best in the world, but several limitations have prevented it from gaining the reputation we believe it deserves; crop competition, low prices, and lack of infrastructure have taken farmers to mainly produce commodity or no coffee at all. Enrekang is no exception. It has been mostly ignored and forgotten; ignored by the market, overlooked by its farmers, but not by all. Yolan Tirta wondered what could happen if the future of specialty coffee was secured; could this become a reliable source of income for farmers? What other steps could he take to secure this future? In 2010, he did the transition to specialty coffee in the region, and started planting varieties. So far, they've invested in drying domes, mills, and warehouses for their farmer partners.

 

CULTIVARS

S795

elevation

1600-1850 meters above sea level.

NOTABLE

This is a family enterprise initiated by Yolan Tirta, who is a new generation farmer that believes in the future of specialty coffee. They’ve invested in drying domes, a mill, and warehouses for their farmer partners.


PROCESSING

Fully Washed: cherries are harvested at their ripest point, pulped that same day, and transferred into a washing station where coffee is fermented under water for 14 days. Coffee is then dried on racks under a closed roof hut.

Anaerobic Natural: cherries are harvested at their ripest point, stored in anaerob bags for 4-6 days, or until there is hint of banana flavour. They are then dried in a closed air drying hut for 24- 27 days.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.

 
  • The price you pay for Silvio’s natural coffee p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.

  • Here the farm gate is inclusive of the all the costs incurred by the farmer to also deliver the coffees to the mill. Depending on whether the farmer owns a mill or drying facility, we have facilitated a contract in cooperation with our farmer friends and exporting partners to invoke the rest of services needed to get the green coffee ready for export. All the farmers in the Nicaraguan ensemble are paid a fixed price for their coffees (Washed/Natural). Farmers are paid premium price for their experimental processing methods.

  • Santa Lucila is a dry milling and export facility. It offers various services including milling, grain pro & jute bag purchase and designing, exporting the coffees between Nicaragua and Netherlands. Since Silvio owns his own milling facility, the only costs he bears are to exportation fee. Depending on the services required by the farmer, Santa Lucila is flexible in it’s arrangement.

  • International shipping from Corinto,Nicaragua to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of freight, customs, insurance and warehousing costs.

  • Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.

  • A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture project

  • This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Gonzalo. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page


Contact Yolan Tirta

Yolan speaks basic English and is fluent in Indonesian. They can be contact via telephone directly.

TEL : +6282292698260

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