Coffee has been grown in Indonesia since the late 1600’s and was the main coffee growing area outside of wild coffee found in Ethiopia and cultivated coffee from Yemen. The Dutch brought seedling coffee plants from Yemen via the Dutch East Indies Company, formally Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC. They then heavily controlled production and labour, whilst highly profitable, 1Kg sold in Amsterdam was roughly equivalent to 100th of an average annual income. The beans from West Java are unusual in having a distinctive bluish colour rather than the normal green bean colour, this is attributed to the unique wet hulling process, giling basah, as well as a lack of iron found in the soil. West Java was where the VOC first started plantations but the ‘Rust’ plague in the 1880’s killed virtually all the Coffea arabica plants and were initially replaced by Coffea liberica species and then Coffea canephora var. robusta. Neither valued for their taste. These Blue Java beans are 100% ‘Arabica’, coming from various ‘Typica’ hybrids. The dark chocolatey flavour makes this a much sought after, but rarely found coffee.
