Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Author:Jesse Q. Sutanto [Sutanto, Jesse Q.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2022-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Of course, the first stop we make, as predicted by Kiki, is a café. I like cafés just as much as the next person, but in Indonesia, I’m finding that coffee isn’t so much a pastime as its own religion. The Alphard drops us off in front of a place called Sejuk Coffee Studio, which on the outside looks like a small, slightly run-down building. But once we walk inside, I go, “Whoa.”

The place is one of those magical buildings where the inside is a lot bigger than the outside looks. Inside, Sejuk Coffee Studio is a completely modern-looking space that reminds me more of a swanky art gallery in LA than a café. I’m realizing that a lot of places in Indonesia are like this: unassuming and sad-looking on the outside, disarmingly stunning on the inside.

“Good choice,” Kiki says to George. “I’ve been wanting to check out this place since they started working together with 5758 Coffee Lab.”

“Same.”

“Excuse me, not to be rude, but why are we here?” Eleanor says. “Coffee is so overrated.”

“They also have chocolate drinks,” George says, smiling down at his little sister. “They roast their own cocoa beans too.”

Eleanor grunts, mollified but not entirely happy.

“And we’re here not just for breakfast and coffee, but to have a quick lesson in how to do latte art,” he says, turning to me too.

Eleanor’s mouth drops open. “Ooh! Can we learn to make those foam teddy bears and stuff?”

George looks up at the barista who’s come out from behind the counter to greet us. “Yes, of course,” the barista says. “Hi, guys, my name’s Lukmi. It’s great to finally meet all of you. Come round here, I’ve got everything ready for you.”

Lukmi leads us through the beautiful café and to the bar, where as promised, there are various cups and pourers laid out in anticipation for our lesson. I’m not normally passionate about coffee, but it’s impossible to not get carried away by the whole vibe of the place. It’s so obvious how much pride they take in it. Lukmi tells us about how throughout history, coffee has become yet another colonized commodity, and how at one point, it got so bad that those who grew the beans couldn’t afford to drink the fruits of their labor.

“The problem with the huge, multinational coffee companies,” Lukmi says, “is that they buy their beans from everywhere—Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil and so on. And then they mixed them up, so you couldn’t even tell which is what coffee.” He says mixed like it’s a bad word, which I guess in this case it is. “They’d import the beans to their processing plants, and then export them back to Indonesia and sell it to us at a hundred times the original price. It took a lot of time, effort, and policy change to make sure Indonesian farmers are protected. Actually, George, your family’s company was one of the ones that pushed hard for changes to be made to the industry.”

George nods. “Yeah, my dad was the one who spearheaded that project.

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