Five Senses Coffee Blog

The kids are alright!!

After trading emails for the last couple of years the planets finally aligned and I managed to be in Bali at the same time as Jeff Neilsen. Jeff is a lecturer and academic at University of NSW and specialises in markets and supply chains in rural areas with a special interest in Indonesian coffee production. Jeff is definitely one of the good guys, a fluent Indonesian speaker and passionate humanitarian and it was great to finally show him our projects in Bali.

I also had contacted a Balinese based photographer Tommy Schultz. Tommy was raised in Virginia in the US, completed a degree in environmental science and spent some time working on aid projects with the Peace Corps in the Philippines. Tommy is one of those rare individuals who has a creative and humanitarian heart and one of the sharpest business minds I’ve come across.

We all shared the common trait of offering our opinions freely and with conviction which made for a very entertaining and stimulating day as we criss-crossed the high country of Bali!

Once we all piled into the car, accompanied by “our man on the ground’, the newly married Komang Sukarsana and Bali’s best driver, Made Mertiasa we started the journey to Git Git to check in on the progress of our nursery at the Tri Karya Subak Abian. It was super exciting to see that our tiny seedlings had now been transplanted from the beds into poly bags and stood proudly in long, neat rows. The plants looked healthy and strong and we now have to wait until February when the mammoth task of getting them into the ground begins. Each plant require a hole 60 cm deep and 30 cms in diameter. With some 7,500 plants to go into the ground, that’s going to take some digging!!!

There was a very tangible air of excitement at Tri Karya about getting stuck into this coffee project. The plan is to plant out around 25 hectares of coffee (somewhere around 40,000 trees!!) over the next couple of years. It’s fair to say this is a very ambitious project and has the potential to have a profound effect on the security and wellbeing of this area. Tri Karya are currently very dependent on clove production for their livelihood and any dip in prices or production would see them in some trouble.

We then moved on to meet our old friends at Kerta Waringin and Ulian Murni, the car was alive with “vigorous” and informed debate. Tommy managed to come up with an online business strategy for anything and everything we discussed whilst Jeff rightly pointed out some of the “holes” in our relationship with the coffee farmers of Bali. Time to revise our game plan a little and start to share the risk a little bit. It’s very much a trust model with FSC exposed to most of the risk!!

One of the highlights of the day for me was when Made Sukerta, the always smiling and hospitable head of Ulian Murni, proudly told us how he declined the offers from some “Aussies”, who tracked them down through our blogs and stories and tried to buy the coffee he has stockpiled to be shipped to us in Australia. Maybe our trust model is not so bad after all!!

Coffee Seedlings

Rows of Seedlings

Jeff at the nursery

Coffee flowering

Tags: Bali, Nursery, origin trip

Surprising Results from our Bali Experiments

On my last trip to Bali I brought back the last of our green samples from our processing experiments. This was started by the brave team on our June harvest trip and involved careful cherry selection of each varietal (B1, S795 and Usda) and subsequent processing by either washed, pulped natural or natural method. We had already cupped the washed and pulped natural samples and these natural samples were the last part of the puzzle.

The overall standard of the naturals were very good with the surprise winner being the S795. The Usda varietal is a reliable winner of all previous Bali cuppings and I thought the natural preparation would really suit it. The Usda is an indigenous Ethiopian varietal, a country that produces some amazing naturally processed coffees. But my theories didn’t stand up in practice. I guess it’s a bit like assuming every Ethiopian is going to be a great long distance runner!!

The winning coffee exhibited an atypical (for Bali) fruity brightness accompanied by the usual voluptuous body we’ve come to expect. It was scored at 84 and we’d be pretty confident in thinking this is the best coffee to come out of Bali. This coffee came from the Ulian Murni Subak which is relatively low at 1000 to 1100 meters above asl. Using the rough rule of thumb of 1 cupping point per additional 100 metres above sea level, my dream is still alive to bring back a 87+ coffee from Bali. Just need to find that S795 plantation above 1400 metres asl!!

The natural prep requires a lot more time and space than the usual washed process, so it probably doesn’t have much appeal to the farmers but we may be able to persuade them to do a few bags for us next harvest for our Backroom program. Watch this space!!

Cupping the S795

Tags: B1, Bali, S795, Usda, Varietal

A day to remember

Today was one of those days when I need to pinch myself to remember I’m actually at work! Deano had joined the team and we headed up to Ulian Murni to check on our preparation experiments and make sure everything was going to plan. The washed sample was still in need of some more fermentation time so we left it in the capable hands of Made Sukerta to finish later in the day. With everything squared away we set off for Kerta Waringin for a cupping with the local farmers and some representatives from Tri Karya where we had built the nursery earlier in the trip.

Whilst waiting for the Subak head to arrive from a meeting we sat down with Putu Pancha the head man from Tri Karya to discuss what financial support we can offer them in the massive project to plant out the seedlings when the time comes.

We have learnt a lot about negotiating in the years we have been working in Bali. There is a widely held perception by the locals that westerners have an endless supply of money that they can be easily parted from. Straight out charity does not work. It destroys the dynamics of the relationship and prevents the formation of a true partnership. We emphasised our long term commitment to the farmers of Tri Karya and arrived at an amount that will allow them to plant out about seven hectares of coffee early next year. There will be a significant amount of labour required that will be worked out equitably amongst the farmers in their typically democratic and community orientated way.

Once the negotiations had finished Putu moved closer to me and fixed my eyes and gave a very sincere thanks to me as a representative of Five Senses. Very emotional!

Meeting with Putu Pancha the head man from Tri Karya in Bali

Meeting with Putu Pancha

Tags: Bali, Five Senses Coffee

The worm farm begins

Day one at Kintamani was a bit of an unknown quantity. We arrived at Ulian Murni to the usual friendly welcome. Ibu Khartini, affectionately nicknamed the worm lady had met us on the way up and we quickly sat down to come up with a plan of attack. A massive worm farm was the objective to handle the coffee pulp that is a waste product of the coffee process. Before we could pick up a shovel in anger we were treated to the usual morning tea and Kopi Bali which fuelled us up for the day ahead. We quickly set to moving a small mountain of fermented coffee pulp that had been festering for a few days. In true Bali style we moved the pulp around in circles until a way forward emerged. The Aussie contingent represented in solid fashion and moved a heap of pulp to create the room for the walls of the worm farms. The Bali boys then took over and started the wall construction with the Aussies acting as willing labourers. In no time the wall was up and whilst not a marvel of modern engineering it looked sturdy and will do the job. A little smelly and weary we jumped back in the van for the ride back to Ubud, ready for another great meal out. Tomorrow we cup with the growers as we try to get them understanding the basic principles of cupping and bridge the gap between origin and the end user.

Tags: Bali, Five Senses, Kintamani, origin trip, Worm farm