One of the most famous coffee-producing regions in the world, the name “Java” has actually become synonymous with coffee itself – particularly in America, consumers will talk about having a “cup of java”, regardless of where their coffee was actually cultivated! Java coffee is wet processed and has a very clean flavour – much more so than Sumatran coffee, for example. Java coffee beans are very slightly acidic and very heavy in body, and the coffee contains hints of spices in its flavour.
Perhaps the best known coffee from Java is the famous “Mocha Java” blend. Despite the rich, mellow flavour and aroma of Java coffee, it lacks enough acidity to give proper balance to the beverage. Compare these traits with those of coffee beans from the Yemen port of Mocha, which do not contain much flavour or aroma to speak of, but which are extremely highly acidic. Mocha coffee beans and Java coffee beans are pretty much opposites in terms of these characteristics – and so someone, many centuries ago, came up with the clever idea of combining the two types of beans.
The result was the Mocha-Java blend. What the Java beans lack in acidity, they take from the Mocha coffee beans; similarly, the Mocha beans‘ flavour and aromas are boosted greatly by the strong, aromatic Java coffee. It was a clever idea: Mocha-Java has endured as a popular, well-balanced coffee. Over time, the Mocha region has produced smaller and smaller quantities of coffee beans, and the Java beans are very often blended with coffee beans from various other regions, but the Mocha-Java name has remained all the same. Don’t mistake it for chocolate – it’s simply the name of the region!
Coffee cultivation began on Java – part of the Dutch East Indies – in the 17th century, by the Dutch. It has been globally exported ever since, but the coffee growing plantations on Java have changed quite a lot over time. In the late 1880s, a plague swept across the coffee agricultural systems, killing off a significant portion of the plants, which is why many of the Arabica coffee trees were replaced with Liberica and Robusta. Because of this, Java’s modern-day coffee plantations are not the original ones from centuries ago – at least, not most of them. The small fraction of Java coffee coming from old colonial era plantations on Java is, however, the more highly valued Arabica variety.
Most of the Arabica coffee on Java comes from the eastern Ijen Plateau, which has an altitude of over 1400 metres. The coffee is wet processed, giving it a sweet taste and a heavy body. Java is a smooth coffee – sometimes quite rusticm and with very subtle hints of herbs and spices in the aftertaste.
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