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

We found something special in the Highlands

This morning I took a break from cupping with the main group and did some more roast training with Ricky. His level of enthusiasm and attention to detail is terrific. Later we cupped three different roasts — a comparison for optimal flavour and ability to detect fault. Ricky is a great person to have on the ground for us here in PNG and his cupping and roasting skills have improved even in the short amount of time we’ve spent with him.

After the morning session we took a ride up to Timusa in the Eastern Highlands. Unfortunately this region has not cupped well over the last three days. Despite this, we can see potential with a 50 bag producer ticking all the boxes for a small holder to produce outstanding quality. Just currently let down by some small issues with processing (which seems to be the achilles heal for many small holder farms in PNG). The small village had great charm and character, and is situated about one and a half hours from Goroka in the Eastern Highlands. The village leader’s name is Offy, upon arrival we were affectionately greeted by his family — a tight knit group whose huts and houses circled neatly around drying beds. He gave us a tour of his processing station and new water supply — we saw enough to suggest that this farm has real potential and worthy of investing time, effort and resources into.

A village nestled up in the Eastern Highlands with real potential.

Tags: 2011, origin trip, PNG

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