Yuma Kawano of Light Up Coffee in Ulian, Bali
Light Up Coffee has set some lofty goals for a future: yet their stream design is swelling specialty coffee opposite Japan, their altogether aim is to lift a customary of Asian coffee opposite a world. Along with using seminars and unchanging cupping events, Light Up Coffee has non-stop a second emporium in Kyoto, and a dedicated roastery in Shimokitazawa.
But for all their work in Japan, it was a news that they’ve been roving to Asia to combine with coffee plantations that had me many intrigued. Co-founder Yuma Kawano says he started severely meditative about transport in 2015 and sees an untapped intensity in Asian coffees.
“I always wanted to go to Costa Rica, or Ethiopia, or Kenya; all famous places for coffee. But places like Blue Bottle and Stumptown are already going there, so we motionless to stay in Asia, and when we suspicion some-more about it, we satisfied people weren’t unequivocally going there.”
Kawano wondered what Asian coffee would ambience like if a routine was given some-more clever attention, and either it would lead to flavors singular to a region.
“At a moment, people see Asian coffee as kind of earthy, bitter, and strong-bodied. It’s not unequivocally clean. we felt like that was a waste. we suspicion we could furnish softened coffee. So with some help, we started collecting samples from opposite Asia.”
Light Up Coffee finished adult roasting and cupping some thirty opposite samples. In a rambling brew of flavors were a few sparks of potential, and Kawano reached out to these coffee farms with a idea of profitable adult front for coffee on one condition; that a farms would work with them to urge any step of production.
This, eventually, brought them to a camp called Ulian, located in a north of Bali, 3 hours by car, Kawano visited Ulian for a initial time in 2015. He says it was a shock.
“The [farmers] usually didn’t know [the process]. They attempted a best they could, yet they usually knew how to make coffee a approach they’d always done it. They were drying a coffee on a ground, and offered it before it had dusty properly. They cleared a coffee in unwashed water; all indispensable to be worked on.”
This appears to be a common thesis in Kawano’s travels, that mostly engage assisting farms to urge a prolongation chain. He teaches any step as entirely as he can, and mostly on singular time. At Ulian, too, he says it was like a pile-up march convention in picking, pulping, washing, and drying.
Pulping
After a time, a coffee improved, and Kawano perceived a tiny collection of coffee that non-stop his eyes to a potential.
“The collection we perceived was like a Costa Rican coffee. It was sweet, clean, and we unequivocally suspicion it was a best coffee I’d tasted in Indonesia. we was so surprised!“
Kawano was carefree they could offer Ulian’s coffee this summer, yet swell over a final year was one of teenager gains among mixed setbacks, including inclement continue and mistakes in a prolongation chain. Plans with Ulian eventually fell through, yet a knowledge galvanized Kawano and pushed him to offer exploration.
“The biggest takeaway [from this experience] is that we know we can grow good coffee in Asia now. It’s tough, yet I’ve tasted unequivocally glorious coffee. If we can make that again, a farmers can sell their coffee during a most aloft rate, and it will be a certain for both of us. There’s genuine intensity there.”
And when we asked him what was next, he excitedly spoke of a Belantih camp in Vietnam and the Pak Hendra camp in a northern partial of Sumatra; both are locations he’s been operative closely with over a final year, with a idea of portion their coffee before a year’s end.
Drying bed
“At a moment, we’re creation contacts, networking, and anticipating plantations that wish to work together to furnish softened coffee. It’s going to need a lot of experimentation, and consistently good coffee competence be two, 3 years away. But we wish to rise a Cup of Excellence turn coffee in Asia; we consider that’s a unequivocally inestimable goal.”
Kawano talks about his adventures with a good unrestrained for a future, and it’s transparent he’s dedicated to this new goal, however hilly a highway forward competence be. And yet a accurate coffees they’ll offer in a nearby future, and when we’ll get them are still a mystery, it’s certain to be an ever some-more intriguing tour for a immature roasters.
Hengtee Lim is a Sprudge staff author formed in Tokyo. Read some-more Hengtee Lim on Sprudge.
Photos pleasantness of Light Up Coffee.
