Growth for Belift and Another Year of Anaerobic Natural Coffee From Java

Having grown up in Java, Belift Green Bean founders Ivan Hartanto, Kevin Soewondo, and Kenny Soewondo had a mission of highlighting coffees from Javanese coffee growers and helping Indonesia gain more recognition as an origin for specialty coffee. Since they exported their first full shipping container at the end of 2020, they’ve been busy and hard at work. Their 2021 harvest that arrived into the US in the middle of spring this year totaled three containers; and now, for 2022, their goal is to more than double that amount! So, what have they been up to that’s allowing them to scale up? 

Meeting with Ivan (left), Kevin (bottom), and Kenny (far right) at the 2022 SCA Coffee Expo last April in Boston. Belift was brewing some of their coffees at the Sustainable Harvest booth. Sustainable Harvest is an importing company that focuses on establishing direct relationships with producers. They are Belift’s partners in importing coffees in the to US.

In my recent chat with Ivan, he explained that soon after their first export, the team quickly recognized that the cost of production remained high as they started working with more farmers. At the time, many farmers that Belift works with were still processing at home. That is, processing cherries, drying them themselves, and then hand sorting before selling to Belift. In the past year, they were able to open a dry mill, where machinery can sort out defects more quickly and efficiently. As they continue to grow and increase the number of farmers they work with, they are also venturing into exporting fully traceable, specialty Javanese washed coffees that lean towards a more classic Indonesian coffee flavor profile and would do well in blends: woody, herbal, a little chocolate with lots of rich body and mouthfeel. While Belift is still geared towards highlighting experimental Indonesian coffees, they believe that promoting high quality coffees with the more traditional profiles is just as important in helping promote Indonesian coffees.

While Belift continues to work with cooperatives that are at the forefront for experimental processing, Belift wants to take it a step further: they are working towards opening a wet mill in central Java where they can do more experimentation. This would include separating coffees of higher and lower elevation and seeing what flavors will be expressed through different processing methods. This wet mill would be used by existing producer groups that they are already working with.

The Belift Green Beans Team. From left to right: Kevin, Hendra, Kenny, Baiti, Ajeng, Bagus, Gita, Marchela, Ivan

With all this work they have ahead of them, Ivan was excited to share that their small team of three people has grown to ten–a few of which are agronomists that are able to help coffee growers with farm management. We’re excited to see Belift grow and see what coffees they’ll showcase in the upcoming harvest season. However, this time around, we are bringing back this anaerobic natural coffee that stopped us in our tracks last year and became an immediate favorite for customers and staff alike.

Members of the Pokmas Walida Cooperative sorting out green, unripe cherries before being processed. While picking ripe, red cherries are ideal, green cherries are often picked when nearing the end of harvest, because sometimes, there are less pickers available to work. It is better to pick unripe cherries than to leave them on the tree to dry. Green cherries are mixed with coffees of lower quality and are often sold to the local or commodity market.

This coffee is produced by the Pokmas Walida Cooperative, based in the Tlogosari village near Mount Argopuro in East Java. The cooperative is still lead by Pak Muhlisin, who started the cooperative with his father in 2014 as a way to improve living conditions in their home village. The cooperative has over 357 members, and 90 of which are women. Under anaerobic natural process, ripe cherries are picked and fermented in a low-oxygen environment in sealed drums for 7 days. Afterwards, the cherries are dried on raised beds for 15 days and are stirred every hour to ensure even drying. At the final step, cherries are patio dried for another 10 days. This labor intensive process leaves us with a brilliant coffee that balances notes of tropical fruits and alcoholic spirits. While we set our notes to pink guava, salak–a fruit native to Indonesia that tastes like pineapple and green apple—and aperol spritz, this coffee has also expressed notes of passion fruit, kiwi candy, watermelon, and palm wine. This is an adventurous coffee that’s well suited for hot summer days and is refreshing when served iced.  When brewing as a drip coffee, try it with a small splash of half and half, and you might taste something that will remind you of a raspberry cream cocktail!

Two members of the Pokmas Walida Cooperative rotating cherries on raised beds to ensure even drying.