Balinese Coffee

Bali Product - JAVA" IS STILL A NICKNAME for coffee in the United States, and the world's first commercial cultivation-of coffee east of Arabia began on the island of Java in 1699, 61 years before coffee was planted in Brazil-the leading producer of coffee today. With its neighbor Java, Bali shares a climate hospitable to coffee growing and the industry is the island's second-largest cash producer. Every year Bali produces 5,000 metric tons of coffee beans, some U.S. $10 million worth., and an estimated 13 percent of the island's population earns at least part of its income from the industry. Although the value of coffee growing in Bali is second only to the burgeoning garment industry, Bali's contribution to the entire production of Indonesia is small-4 percent. As a whole, today Indonesia ranks third, behind Brazil and Columbia.

Most of Bali's coffee finds its way to the export markets in the United States and Europe, although the Balinese are great coffee drinkers. Balinese style coffee is not, for the faint of heart they prepare it by putting a spoon fu of finely ground roast coffee-not instant-right into: the cup. This is stirred up, and a large amount of sugar is spooned in. The result is more of a thick suspension than a solution, and is muddy and opaque. It quickly produces a deposit in the bottom of the glass, so it is stirred occasionally to keep the powder in suspension.

COFFEE DRINKING BEGAN in the valleys of what is now Ethiopia where Coffea arabica, the most important of the commercially valuable species of coffee, grows wild. Arab traders who encountered the practice in the 13th century took the habit back home with them-among other places to the important Red Sea port, Mocha. Mocha, in what is now Yemen, is another place that has become synonymous with "coffee." The coffee drinking custom spread to Egypt, Syria, and Persia, and Mocha became the great emporium for co6ce trade in the Arab world. Mocha's location, just across from Ethiopia in the narrow strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, gave it a great geographical advantage in the early coffee trade. Venetian traders brought the coffee drinking habit from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to their home port in 1615, and from there it spread quickly all over Europe. The first coffee house in London was established in 1652.

Coffee plants were introduced to Java in 1699, and Bali's neighbor dominated the world markets until the middle of the 19th century. The Dutch administrators were ruthless in insisting that all available land be devoted to coffee growing- By the time the Englishman Sir Stamford Raffles-later to found Singapore-became lieutenant governor of Java in 1811, coffee production was so widespread that the production of food crops was dropping off dangerously, a practice that Raffles quickly stopped. .

Coffee growing had spread to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, at about the same time as it had come to Java. Ceylon's industry did not furnish much competition for Java until the middle of the nineteenth century. But the Ceylon groves proved disastrous, not just to Java, but to the entire coffee growing industry in Asia. In 1869 Hemileia vastatrix, a fungus that produces leaf rust, appeared on the coffee trees in Ceylon. It appears to have spread there accidentally from its native habitat in Africa. In twenty years it destroyed the entire coffee industry of Ceylon. It continued to spread, reaching Java in 1869, Mauritius in 1880, and The Philippines in 1890. It wiped out the Coffea arabica groves.

After this disaster, many of the coffee growing areas of mainland and peninsular Asia were turned over to other crops such as rubber. And during this same period, at the end of the 19th century, the coffee industry of Brazil rapidly grew to its present preeminence in the world. But coffee growers still sought a tow of coffee that would be resistant to leaf rust. Coffea liberica, native to Liberia, was tried in 1873, but it held its own for only a decade before it too succumbed to leaf rust.

By 1900 the surge of Brazilian production had dropped the price of coffee to such a low level that even liberica plantations in many parts of Asia were abandoned in favor of rubber trees. But coffee growing in Java had never been completely abandoned, as it had in places such as Malaysia. Javanese growers continued to search for a disease resistant strain. By about 1900 they were achieving success with strains of still a third species of coffee, Coffea canepbora, various cultivars; of which today are called Coffea robusta.

It was discovered that disease resistance was often related to the altitude at which coffee grew. Experiments with robusta indicated that it grew very well at altitudes from 400 to 800 meters above sea level and was sufficiently disease resistant in this range to warrant large developments. On the other hand, the arabica variety seemed to be much less susceptible to Hemiliea and other diseases when grown at altitudes above-800 meters. So-this has been.-the direction taken by coffee growers in Indonesia-robusta at lower elevations, arabica at higher elevations. Robusta is by far the dominant crop in lndonesia making up .a total of 90 percent of the coffee grown and 95 percent of the coffee exported. The situation just the opposite in Brazil, where 85 percent of the coffee production is arabica

Arabica fetches a somewhat higher price And is in greater demand in the cofee importing countries. Robusta coffees are somewhat more mild than those from Arabica strains. Indonesia describe the taste of Arabica as asam sour but Westerns usually describe robusta as being relatively tasteless. Most of robusta exported tit the world is used to make so-called -soluble' or instant coffees, for which it seems to be more ideally suited than Arabica overall, about a quarter of the world's coffee is picked from rabusta bushes.

	*Coffee*

	*Bali Product* - JAVA" IS STILL A NICKNAME for coffee in the United States, and the world's first commercial cultivation-of coffee east of Arabia began on the island of Java in 1699, 61 years before coffee was planted in Brazil-the leading producer of coffee today. With its neighbor Java, Bali shares a climate hospitable to coffee growing and the industry is the island's second-largest cash producer. Every year Bali produces 5,000 metric tons of coffee beans, some U.S. $10 million worth., and an estimated 13 percent of the island's population earns at least part of its income from the industry. Although the value of coffee growing in Bali is second only to the burgeoning garment industry, Bali's contribution to the entire production of Indonesia is small-4 percent. As a whole, today Indonesia ranks third, behind Brazil and Columbia. Most of Bali's coffee finds its way to the export markets in the United States and Europe, although the Balinese are great coffee drinkers. Balinese style coffee is not, for the faint of heart they prepare it by putting a spoon fu of finely ground roast coffee-not instant-right into: the cup. This is stirred up, and a large amount of sugar is spooned in. The result is more of a thick suspension than a solution, and is muddy and opaque. It quickly produces a deposit in the bottom of the glass, so it is stirred occasionally to keep the powder in suspension. COFFEE DRINKING BEGAN in the valleys of what is now Ethiopia where Coffea arabica, the most important of the commercially valuable species of coffee, grows wild. Arab traders who encountered the practice in the 13th century took the habit back home with them-among other places to the important Red Sea port, Mocha. Mocha, in what is now Yemen, is another place that has become synonymous with "coffee." The coffee drinking custom spread to Egypt, Syria, and Persia, and Mocha became the great emporium for co6ce trade in the Arab world. Mocha's location, just across from Ethiopia in the narrow strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, gave it a great geographical advantage in the early coffee trade. Venetian traders brought the coffee drinking habit from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to their home port in 1615, and from there it spread quickly all over Europe. The first coffee house in London was established in 1652. Coffee plants were introduced to Java in 1699, and Bali's neighbor dominated the world markets until the middle of the 19th century. The Dutch administrators were ruthless in insisting that all available land be devoted to coffee growing- By the time the Englishman Sir Stamford Raffles-later to found Singapore-became lieutenant governor of Java in 1811, coffee production was so widespread that the production of food crops was dropping off dangerously, a practice that Raffles quickly stopped. . Coffee growing had spread to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, at about the same time as it had come to Java. Ceylon's industry did not furnish much competition for Java until the middle of the nineteenth century. But the Ceylon groves proved disastrous, not just to Java, but to the entire coffee growing industry in Asia. In 1869 Hemileia vastatrix, a fungus that produces leaf rust, appeared on the coffee trees in Ceylon. It appears to have spread there accidentally from its native habitat in Africa. In twenty years it destroyed the entire coffee industry of Ceylon. It continued to spread, reaching Java in 1869, Mauritius in 1880, and The Philippines in 1890. It wiped out the Coffea arabica groves. After this disaster, many of the coffee growing areas of mainland and peninsular Asia were turned over to other crops such as rubber. And during this same period, at the end of the 19th century, the coffee industry of Brazil rapidly grew to its present preeminence in the world. But coffee growers still sought a tow of coffee that would be resistant to leaf rust. Coffea liberica, native to Liberia, was tried in 1873, but it held its own for only a decade before it too succumbed to leaf rust. By 1900 the surge of Brazilian production had dropped the price of coffee to such a low level that even liberica plantations in many parts of Asia were abandoned in favor of rubber trees. But coffee growing in Java had never been completely abandoned, as it had in places such as Malaysia. Javanese growers continued to search for a disease resistant strain. By about 1900 they were achieving success with strains of still a third species of coffee, Coffea canepbora, various cultivars; of which today are called Coffea robusta. It was discovered that disease resistance was often related to the altitude at which coffee grew. Experiments with robusta indicated that it grew very well at altitudes from 400 to 800 meters above sea level and was sufficiently disease resistant in this range to warrant large developments. On the other hand, the arabica variety seemed to be much less susceptible to Hemiliea and other diseases when grown at altitudes above-800 meters. So-this has been.-the direction taken by coffee growers in Indonesia-robusta at lower elevations, arabica at higher elevations. Robusta is by far the dominant crop in lndonesia making up .a total of 90 percent of the coffee grown and 95 percent of the coffee exported. The situation just the opposite in Brazil, where 85 percent of the coffee production is arabica Arabica fetches a somewhat higher price And is in greater demand in the cofee importing countries. Robusta coffees are somewhat more mild than those from Arabica strains. Indonesia describe the taste of Arabica as asam sour but Westerns usually describe robusta as being relatively tasteless. Most of robusta exported tit the world is used to make so-called -soluble' or instant coffees, for which it seems to be more ideally suited than Arabica overall, about a quarter of the world's coffee is picked from rabusta bushes.
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