To do so, the coffee needed to be more than just good. The coffee needed to be extraordinary.
When MJ started competing a few years ago, he felt like the Indonesian coffee does have a great potential, and that it can be improved. This really translates to what both So So Good Coffee Company and Catur Coffee Company does as a company, which is to help improve the Indonesian coffee to have interesting flavors and eventually attract better pricing.
"It doesn't necessarily need to be from this region, but I really wanted to use Indonesian coffee for the competitions. And it just so happens that the coffee from Manggarai has been great and consistent from the last couple of years."
The coffee that MJ used at the WBC this year, were three coffees from Manggarai, Flores. What differentiates the three, was that each of those coffees were processed differently. For his Signature Beverage, MJ used a traditional washed coffee from CATUR Collection's Senja taste profile. He wanted to showcase that by adding the right ingredients, it would help to show what the coffee was capable of. And progressively, through the milk course and espresso course, the judges will be able to taste more of the coffee.
“Because the Signature Beverage has the ingredients added to it, it will taste more like a finished product.”
Signature Beverage
Senja Manggarai (Uwu)
Country : Indonesia
Region : Uwu, Manggarai
Altitude : 1.400 – 1.600 MASL
Process : Anaerobic Washed Honey
Processor : So So Good Coffee & Tuang Coffee
Varietal : Kartika
Tasting Notes: Bergamot, Orangina, Grape candy
“Like a synergy between all the ingredients, whereas the milk course is only coffee with milk.”
Milk Beverage
Kamala Manggarai
Country : Indonesia
Region : Uwu, Manggarai
Altitude : 1.400 – 1.600 MASL
Process : Anaerobic Natural
Processor : So So Good Coffee & Tuang Coffee
Varietal : Kartika
Tasting Notes: Macadamia, Chocolate coated orange, vanilla
“It then becomes even simpler, where the judges will taste just the espresso and nothing else.”
Espresso Beverage
Kamala Manggarai (Gulang)
Country : Indonesia
Region : Gulang, Manggarai
Altitude : 1.400 – 1.600 MASL
Process : Anaerobic Natural
Processor : So So Good Coffee & Tuang Coffee
Varietal : Kartika
Tasting Notes: Yellow Peach, Juicy plum, Acacia Flower
This progression was what MJ has been personally working on in the couple of years he's been competing. Back in 2018, MJ has been going back and forth to farms.
“Initially, we asked the farmers to do something different. But then we realized that we needed to share knowledge between one another, combining the knowledge and experience of our local farmers and our own knowledge and experience, from both a roaster and barista point of view.”
Eventually, MJ and his team realized this gap, and so in late 2019, they were able to understand what was needed to help the farmers process the coffee, through working with the farmers, the processors, baristas and scientists!
“See, you used to get coffees for the Espresso from another country that is great and better. You try to replicate that into your Signature Beverage using an Indonesian coffee. But now, the Indonesian coffee itself tastes great and it doesn’t need any ingredients to help make it taste better. It can be showcased on its own. This really is a testament to the process, the thinking, the inoculants and the people.”
In a funny way, the espresso itself was the Signature Beverage, because MJ and his team designed it from the ground up. MJ wants the judges of WBC to experience this.
"Because eventually, if we were able to showcase this, we can share this knowledge and ideas to be applied to other coffee processing countries as well like Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar to bump their coffees up and be the best version of itself. Not like the usual- where we can show and share that through the adding of ingredients, the coffee can then taste a certain way. Instead, here is what we can do, we've done this, and this is what the coffee ended up tasting like."
"From the moment we harvest the coffee, we designed the fermentation precursor, and then we ferment it, dry it, to the way we roast and extract it. So, in a lot of ways, it’s like a Signature Beverage, where we put in the ingredients. But it just so happens that we put in the ingredients before we roast the coffee."
“Usually, coffees that are used for competitions are only available for around 20 KG, whereas we have processed this coffee and produced 20 tons of it. This really represents a bigger picture of an entire community in Ruteng, and I think, and we think that the sample of the finished product tastes amazing."