The Elusive Javanese Cup of Coffee

23 August 2010

A cup of Javanese coffee is a lesson on life. Within hours of arriving on Java I had my first, heavily anticipated, cup of real Java coffee. I hated it. I was angry. It was the grainiest cup of coffee I had ever had. I hoped that I had just made a mistake and that a better cup of coffee could be found at a superior coffee establishment. Or worse, what if all the coffee beans grown on Java were exported and we would be stuck drinking Nescafe??

The second time I tried it I was still disappointed. Grainy. Grainy. Grainy! When sipped slowly the grains settled and the liquid form of the Javanese coffee (kopi) began to emerge. The days passed, more cups of coffee drunk. Slowly. Slowly. And then it happened. I was finally drinking the cup of coffee of my dreams. As with many things in life, I had to stay open minded and literally relearn how to drink coffee to appreciate this finely ground blend. And once I learned, it was the best cup of coffee I had ever had in my life. And every cup of coffee (four this morning so far) exceeded my wildest coffee expectations. “Better than the best cup of Peet’s” Nick exclaimed this morning.

So why is this coffee so grainy? My curiosity was satisfied as I watched it being made this morning. The explanation pivots on the fact that the coffee is ground up very fine. Then it is mixed with boiling water and stirred. Finally, this mixture is poured through a fine strainer (but not fine enough to filter out all the fine grounds) directly into a cup or into a decanter for pouring. The result is a very strong cup of coffee that is almost soupy with grounds. After adding a bit of milk (susu) the grains settle to the bottom of the cup and you drink, slowly. As you reach the bottom, you see the thick coffee sludge on the bottom, a reminder to pace yourself. If you are careful, you can literally sip the liquid off the grounds “to the last drop” without turning it into a grainy disaster. And there you have it, Java on the island of Java.