Episode Details

Coffee is not native to Indonesia. In 1696 the Dutch governor in Malabar sent Arabica seedlings, originally from Yemen, to Batavia, now Jakarta, where floods wiped them out. A second shipment in 1699 took hold, making Indonesia the first place outside Arabia and Ethiopia with wide cultivation, and exports sailed from Java in 1711. From 1830 to about 1870 the Dutch cultivation system forced villages to grow coffee, sugar, and indigo instead of rice, causing hunger in West Java, West Sumatra, and Sulawesi. In 1860 official Eduard Douwes Dekker, writing as Multatuli, exposed it in the novel Max Havelaar.

In 1876 coffee leaf rust wiped out Java's Arabica Typica, and in 1900 the Dutch brought in canephora, which now makes up 75% of exports. The other 25% varies by island: earthy Sumatran Mandheling, Java beans aged in burlap for up to five years, clean Toraja coffee from Sulawesi, and organic Balinese coffee grown under the Subak Abian system. Indonesia is the world's fourth largest producer, with about two million smallholders, and a 2007 WWF report found illegal coffee farms inside Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park.

• In the 1700s a kilogram of coffee cost nearly 1% of an average European's yearly income.
• Giling basah, or wet hulling, removes parchment while beans hold up to 50% moisture, creating a heavy, earthy cup and bluish green beans.
• Kopi luwak passes through the Asian palm civet and can sell for over $600 per kilogram.
• Bali's Subak Abian follows Tri Hita Karana, harmony with God, people, and the environment, which favors organic methods.
• The WWF report warned tigers, elephants, and rhinos in the park could vanish within a decade and linked the coffee to Nestle and Kraft supply chains.