Roast date stamped on the bag, and the price we paid the farmer printed under it.
Two numbers nobody in this trade likes putting on a label. The first tells you whether the coffee is any good today; the second tells you where your money went. Both are on every bag we sell, and the second one is on the beans page in full.
Stamped, not printedThe date goes on after the roast, by hand. A pre-printed date is a plan; a stamp is a fact.
Coffee does not go off. It goes flat, and there is a date for that.
Nobody is going to be poisoned by old coffee. They are going to be disappointed by it, slowly, without knowing why — which is worse for a roastery than a complaint.
The window
Coffee needs three or four days to release its carbon dioxide before it brews evenly, and then it is at its best for about three weeks. This is the period we are aiming at when we decide what to roast on a Tuesday.
Still good
Noticeably quieter, particularly the aromatics at the front. Perfectly pleasant coffee, and where most supermarket bags are on the day you open them.
Flat
Not spoiled, not harmful, just dull — and no grinder or technique will bring it back. If a bag on our shelf reaches this, we take it home rather than discount it, because a cheap disappointment is still a disappointment.
On the shelf now
Six lots at a time. When one runs out it does not come back until the next harvest, and we would rather say that than substitute something similar without telling you.
A Rp 145.000 bag of Gayo, broken down.
Published because “we pay farmers fairly” is a sentence anyone can type. A number is harder to type and easier to check.
| Line | Amount | Share | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green coffee, paid to the farmer | Rp 26.000 | 18% | 238 g of green at Rp 109.000/kg, against about Rp 72.000 at the local collector |
| Transport, hulling, sorting | Rp 9.000 | 6% | Aceh to Malang, plus the hand-sort that removes the defects |
| Roasting: gas and labour | Rp 23.000 | 16% | Two batches a week, and the person watching the drum |
| Bag, valve, label | Rp 9.000 | 6% | The one-way valve is what lets a bag be sealed four days after roasting |
| Shop, rent, delivery | Rp 33.000 | 23% | Including the couriers, which we pass on at cost |
| Lots that do not sell | Rp 12.000 | 8% | Roughly one bag in twelve goes flat on the shelf and is written off |
| Margin | Rp 33.000 | 23% | Before tax |
The line worth explaining is the first one: 238 grams of green coffee, not 200. A kilogram of green weighs about 840 grams once the water has been driven out of it, so a 200 g bag of roasted coffee started as 238 g of green — and somebody pays for the 38 grams that left. That somebody is you, on every bag of coffee you have ever bought, whether or not the label mentioned it.
How much coffee, how much water, and how long the bag lasts.
Pick your method and the number of cups; the calculator gives you the dose, the grind, the temperature and the time. Then it does the arithmetic nobody does at the counter: how many days that bag will last you, and whether it will be flat before you finish it.
Open the calculatorWe sell four teas and we are not tea specialists.
They are here because half the people who walk into a roastery live with someone who does not drink coffee. That is a real reason to stock something and a poor reason to pretend expertise.
- Four, not fortyA green from Cianjur, a black from Bogor, a jasmine and a lemongrass tisane. All from two growers we visit.
- We will not blind-taste for youOur palates are trained on coffee. On tea we can tell you the origin, the grade and how it was processed, and the rest you should judge yourself.
- The brewing card is the same standardWeight, water temperature, time, and how many cups a 100 g tin gives you. That part we do know how to write.
Three of them, including one who was sold a smaller bag
“I ordered the kilo because it was cheaper per gram. They messaged back and said at one cup a day it would be flat before I got halfway, and sent me two 500 g bags a month apart for slightly less money.”
Yudha PratamaSubscriber since January“The roast date on the bag was four days before it arrived. I have bought coffee for years and this is the first time I have known that number rather than guessed it.”
Prita MaharaniBought in February“I asked which was the best bean. The answer was a question about how I brew and whether I take milk, and then a recommendation for the second-cheapest one on the list.”
Adi KurniawanBought in MarchTell us how you brew and we will point at one bean.
Not a menu of twelve with tasting notes you cannot verify. Three questions, one answer, and a reason attached to it.