Bean quality and taste of robusta coffee (Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner) from Bale village on Halmahera Island, Indonesia

Abstract

North Maluku is one of the provinces producing Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner) in Indonesia. Although coffee production is smaller than in other provinces, coffee can be found in many locations in the provinces, namely Halmahera Island, Bacan, Obi, Tidore, and Ternate. Bale Village, located on Halmahera Island, is one of the villages in the Oba sub-district, Tidore Island. The village is known on Halmahera Island, Ternate Island, and the surrounding areas as a producer of coffee beans and coffee powder. Some of the people in the village live as farmers and home coffee entrepreneurs using traditional processing methods. The quality and taste of the coffee beans from smallholder coffee plantations from Halmahera Island, especially Bale Village, need to be studied to set the status of bean quality and taste of local coffee in Indonesia. This study is an effort to gain an initial illustration that will become a foundation for a comprehensive local coffee development in North Maluku. It will encourage resorts to generate local coffee with a unique taste that is widely known, favored by many people, and has the potential to be a Geographical Indicator (IG) of Halmahera coffee. The research result indicates that Robusta coffee beans from Bale Village Halmahera Island are free from live insects, not rotten or moldy, and do not contain foreign matters with moisture content meets the general requirement of SNI 01-2907-2008. The result of quality testing of Robusta coffee beans from Bale village is within the criteria of quality 4b in the SNI 01-2907-2008. The attributes of coffee taste consisting of fragrance/aroma, flavour, bitter/sweet, and mouthfeel/body are in an excellent category, whereas clean cup and uniformity are in an outstanding category. The final score and cup testing is 84.62, which is in the specialty coffee category.