Java Nomad here. Just signed up to Steem today after a flood of messages and posts the past few days from bitcoin friends, liberty friends and coffee friends around the world telling me about this site/project and suggesting I share some of my stories and adventures here.
If you might enjoy stories and pictures about freedom, coffee, bitcoin, blockchain tech and world travel from someone who integrates all of them, please read on...
Quick Intro: I was the founder of the Roast Station Project three years ago. As a perpetual traveler with a severe addiction to both liberty and coffee - I had found my way to Indonesia to start learning more about growing and roasting coffee hands on. At the same time, I was dipping my toes into bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.
The Roast Station Project was my first attempt at using this emerging technology to bridge the gap between rural producers of our favorite beverage and those who drink it in way that would improve both ends of the supply chain.
In a nutshell, I sold fresh-roasted coffee I bought and roasted at source (Indonesia) to bitcoiners around the world in Autumn 2013. The project was just the start to 3 mind-blowing years (and counting) of around the world adventures in Liberty, Coffee and Crypto.
For Today's PART 1
The rest of this first post is a story and pictures from one of my early coffee farm adventures in the Kalibaru district of East Java, Indonesia - just as I was diving into coffee and crypto.
NOTE: If you enjoy this intro and story, please let me know and I will continue sharing how I have been traveling around the world to improve quality of life and quality of product on both ends of the coffee supply chain with the help of these amazing, freedom boosting emerging technologies...
The Hidden Indonesia Robusta Farm Adventure - August 2013
Step 1: Have Coffee With Mayor Edy
Our first stop in Kali Baru village was the Mayor's house. We had a meeting on his front porch over a cup of the local robusta coffee. Java Nomad's guide explained we wanted to check out the robusta harvest and maybe source some beans. He was happy to oblige and made a couple calls.
Step 2: Go Straight To The Source
A few minutes later, the head of one of the local coffee farmers' co-op arrives. After introductions, we follow him up into the Kali Baru foothills into a very rural village where almost every single family is drying robusta coffee on blue tarps in their yards.
Pause To Smell The Robusta Flowers
Most of the Robusta has already been harvested, but there were still some late blooming plants.
Step 3: Check Out The Harvested Robusta Cherries
For Speciality Coffee Fanatics like Java Nomad, the sight of poorly harvested beans is painful to behold. Unfortunately, the robusta farmers get paid the same no matter the quality of the beans - so they just pick everything off the tree - unripe, ripe, over-ripe, mildewed, rotten - it all gets processed and sold together.
Closeup Robusta Coffee Cherries
Here you can see the mixed harvested robusta beans up close in various stages of ripeness.
Watch out for the kids!
Java Nomad is surrounded by a throng of local village kids. Not often a crazy Bule (Westerner) makes their way up here.
Step 4: Begin The Dry Processing
The mixed cherries are initially run through a machine that does an initial breaking up of the cherry. The cherries are then spread on blue tarps to dry in the sun.
Step 5: Drying The Cherries
The coffee cherries are then left to dry in the sun and raked continually for several weeks.
Step 6: Hulling Begins
Once the Cherries have dried enough - everything is dumped into a huller to remove the dry outer layer and separate it from the bean.
Step 7: Additional Hulling
The rough-hulled beans go through another machine to remove a bit more of the silver skin and parchment.
Step 8: Ready To Sell
At this point, the dry processed beans are bagged and ready for to be sold to the buyers. As you can see, this is a very low-grade mix with plenty of black and broken beans, unsorted for size as well. The large companies buy this up in bulk cheap to use for instant coffee mixes - and the farmers receive around $1.80 per kilo - less than ninety cents per pound for these. Again, the aren't offered a higher price if the beans are picked, processed and sorted better, so there is no incentive to improve the quality. Java Nomad purchased 3kg to sample.
Step 9: Sort The Beans Yourself (With A Little Help)
I wanted to see if there was any hope for these Robusta beans, so I sorted out 1kg of the best beans - removing the obviously rotten, black and broken ones. It was about 50/50 usable and unusable. My host in Java, 73 year old Mr. Hussen, jumped in to help.
The Sorted Beans
Here's a closeup of the beans we picked out to roast. Compare it to the previous picture and you'll see the difference.
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Step 10: Roast 'Em Up
I ran 500g of the sorted Robusta through my trusty w600 mini coffee roaster. With Robusta, I start them at a higher temp than Arabicas and push them hard - I brough this batch into Full City +, but will take the next batch even further.
Roasted To Full City +
Here's a closeup of the roasted Kali Baru Robusta. We let it rest for one day before grinding and brewing.
Step 11: Grind It Coarse
Step 12: Brew It In The French Press
4 tablespoons to around 16-18 oz water. 4 minutes. (Breaking the crust and giving a good stir halfway through.)
Step 13: Drink It Up
Surprisingly drinkable! While obviously a robusta - there were few if any "off" notes in the cup - none of the rubbery, chemical like flavors that haunt many of the commercial robusta coffee powders you find here in Indonesia. Very strong "single note" coffee flavor - no extra characteristics or complex nuances as in Arabicas - but still quite palatable! And after 10 minutes - you KNOW the caffeine is strong in this stuff! I will take the next batch to Full City ++ to see if I can bring out some additional smoky notes. Overall - I'd really like to see these robusta beans harvested RIPE and sorted for size and quality. If only there was more interested in good robusta - it's an enjoyable drink!
Thanks for letting me introduce myself and share an early adventure. Again, if you have any questions or you'd like to read and view more of my adventures in Liberty, Coffee and Crypto - please let me know!
Hi javanomad... what a nice adventure, isn't it?
Daily life without coffee is like a sky without stars... :) (at least, it's what I'm feeling if I skip enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning)
Great story. Do you drink the coffee the way some Russians do it, without filtering? ;)
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