This is how they brew coffee in Aceh
Certainly, you only can see this brewery style in Aceh
It is a few minutes to 6 o’clock, before the sunrise, we just have finished Fajr one of our daily prayers. We decide to go to a coffee house in an area of Peuniti in the centre of Banda Aceh city. The barista is standing there, heating the water tank, and measuring the coffee ground for the first brewing session. This coffee house is literally crowded, I have to observe for a space to sit and it takes five minutes to find it.
Here in Banda Aceh, people usually start their day with a cup of coffee, and it should be Robusta coffee (to learn about this coffee, read my previous story). Also, I see an unwritten law that the coffee should be from the coffee house thus this place is crowded by people. What is the reason of this unwritten law? Probably this is another story in this coffee culture in Aceh series.
In this article, I will point out to the brewery style in a classic Acehnese coffee house. As an Acehnese who have travelled to several places, met numerous cultures and ethnicities, I realised that this brewery style is not available except in my homeland. What makes the brewery in Aceh very special? Well, The clue is in its tool and the barista’s technique.
I am going to describe the brewery style, the reason behind the barista technique, and tool details with the function of each. Perhaps, after reading this, you can make your coffee with this style since you do not have to spend hundreds of dollars on purchasing the tools.
The brewery tools
First, let’s take a look at the tools. To brew the coffee with the Acehnese style you have to provide:
- A strainer made from thin cotton fabric, usually white fabric. The length of strainer must be longer than your football socks
- Two medium-size (approximately 1 litre) containers
- Robusta coffee beans, medium ground or finely ground, for the best result, use the dark roast
- Boiled water (depends on the cup number to serve)
- Strong arms, this one is necessary
Why long fabric strainer?
To be honest, I do not know the history of the invention of this brewery, because there are no people in this city know when it was invented, nor the historical account to be referred. Nonetheless, the function can be understood. Cotton fabric is able to separate the fine coffee ground better than typical strainer, and also re-useable unlike the paper in V60 style. The key is sustainability and lower cost apparently. I assume if they use a paper filter, the coffee price will increase sharply, and people will leave that coffee house after all this is just a personal assumption.
Next, why don’t they use Arabica beans? I had explained this question in the previous story. Briefly, Robusta is much cheaper and bolder than Arabica.
Then, strong-arm? Is it just a jest in this story?
Nope, I am seriously saying that you have to possess strong arms to brew the coffee with this way. Lifting a container filled up with almost a litre of boiled water isn’t a simple job, and you should lift it beyond your head height. If you lift it with your right hand, your left-hand holds the strainer which later filled with the poured hot water. You need to use your muscle on both hands, don’t you?
Brewing the Coffee
Theoretically, the Robusta coffee requires fully boiled water in its brewing process. The reason is that the Robusta will release its pure taste if soaked in boiled water. Perhaps some of you, especially the Arabica barista or enthusiast, disagree with this theory. However, I tried it one, brewing with 75o C hot water and comparing the taste with brewed by boiled water one. I found that the latter has bolder taste, less sour, the “coffee” taste is stronger than the former. Then using the fully boiled water makes more sense for Robusta beans.
To start the coffee-making process, put 8–10 tablespoon fine coffee ground or 10–12 spoon medium ground coffee to one container. Afterwards, pour half of litre boiled water, and let it sit for about 7–10 minutes. To Indicate that the coffee is finely brewed, you can smell the aroma and see the bubbles on it. Then add more hot water to the container. Let it sit again for another 2 minutes, and then let’s do the action.
If you ever saw the process of making “Teh Tarek” in Malaysia, you are familiar with this process. But they don’t use the strainer, just passing the tea liquid from container to the container while pulling the container up.
In this Coffee brewing process, you hold the container with the brewed coffee with your right hand (if you are a lefty, use your left then). Then your left-hand holds the strainer, put it above the second container. Pour the brewed coffee to the strainer and it will flow through the strainer. Make sure the liquid goes to the second container, you better not spill it. Pull up the strainer, as high as possible. Subsequently, repeat the process between container, two or three times.
Eventually, you have a filtered coffee in the container. Now prepare the cup, usually, a barista can fill 10 to 15 cups at once. Using the same method of filtering between container. Now, you let the coffee flow from the strainer to each cup. Finally, you get the bold black coffee on a cup.
The art of passing the liquid between containers and pour it into cups is such a good performance. You are not only enjoying the drink but also seeing the brewing process because they literally brew it in front of people. This process aims to get the best-filtered coffee, stronger coffee means less filtering, milder coffee more filtering. Also, you cut the production time since you brew it for many cups.
Apparently, the Acehnese brewery is quite similar to V60 or Vietnam Drip. However, both are specialised for one cup serving, not for many cups. This technique could be categorised as a signature brew from the North Sumatra region besides Sanger.
Wait for the next story on Coffee Culture in Aceh
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