こんにちは、HPマネージャーの仲井です！

今回はMikaelさんに、インドネシアの文化とスペシャルティコーヒーについて執筆いただきました！
インドネシア本場のコーヒー飲んでみたいですね♪

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Hello, everyone! Mikael here! I just joined Kanda laboratory in January of this year, and I just officially began my final year research project. This will be my first blog as a member of Kanda laboratory.

Fun fact, since joining this laboratory, I also became the new “tea money” manager. As a “tea money” manager, I oversee collecting money from all the lab members, and help buy drinks such as tea, coffee, and sugar for everyone in the lab, on my own discretion. I agreed to do this task because I enjoy picking and making various kinds of drinks, especially coffee. I could say confidently that my hobby is making and drinking coffee. So, in this first blog I will write about this hobby, and how I could maybe improve the quality of life of my other lab members through my coffee-making skills!。

First, I would like to introduce my background a little bit. I come from Indonesia, and Indonesia is one of the top coffee-producing countries in the world. Since many Indonesians do not drink alcohol, instead of bars, people hang out and socialize in cafes instead. Indonesia really has a strong coffee culture in the first place, but it has been booming much more recently, after the new culture of “specialty coffee” was introduced. That is also the coffee culture I am more familiar with, and the one where coffee-making as a hobby is much more appreciated. However, maybe not everybody is familiar with the term “specialty coffee”.

So, what is “specialty coffee”? In general, it refers to the category of high-grade coffee beans, with considerable care put into its supply chain, making sure it is ethically and sustainably sourced. Then, the coffee beans are skillfully processed and brewed, ending up in the consumers hands as a very delightful cup of coffee, with unique flavor notes and free from bitterness and the unpleasant tastes traditionally associated with coffee in the past.

by　MIKAEL　