“The taste of customers has changed.”
Marasi Situngkir told me this one night, while he and I sat together in his coffee shop. He’s waiting for visitors to stop by, and I’m watching the cars drive by off the side of the highway in Medan City.
Marasi is middle-aged, and his coffee shop is called Gerobak Kopi City+. He keeps it open from early in the morning until late at following the habits of his customers. Seven years ago, in 2017 or so, this coffee shop became one of the coolest spots for coffee lovers in Medan, the capital and largest city of North Sumatra—it’s 2.5 million people puts it right between Houston and Chicago in terms of population. At Kopi City, Stinking brews exclusively Sumatran coffee from several single estates, such as Lintong and Mandailing coffee from North Sumatra, and Gayo coffee from Takengon, Central Aceh. Most of the coffees are processed by the wet grinding method, and some of them are processed in a style known locally as “wine coffee”—a style of processing fermentation that produces a rich taste, with sweet, sour, and acidic flavors all present in a cup.
Back in 2017, third wave coffee was trending in a huge way across Medan. V60 brewing was all the rage, and coffee bars like Gerobak Kopi City enjoyed exploding popularity. But now trends are changing.
“V60 coffee connoisseurs are not coming as much as they used to,” the cafe owner tells me. “Coffee drinkers, especially young people, prefer to drink mixed coffees, such as iced milk coffee, or hot milk coffee, or coffee with a mixture of (liquid) palm sugar and chocolate.”
Coffee bar owners across the planet just nodded their heads in recognition. As in Northern Sumatra, so goes the world.
That night, when it suddenly rained heavily, several people riding motorcycles stopped by the outlet. While waiting for the rain to subside, two people ordered iced coffee mixed with milk and chocolate powder. Two young people then arrived and ordered hot milk coffee—in which coffee is mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
Fewer and fewer visitors to this cafe are ordering their coffee brewed simply in a V60, and more and more are coming looking for coffee serviced with additives, including milk, palm sugar, chocolate, and other flavorings. In response, coffee shop owners like Marasi Situngkir have begun to adapt—and in some cases abandon—the methods that once defined Medan City’s “third wave era”. Along with the emergence of coffee outlets with large spaces and providing cheap coffee, several special coffee outlets, closed one by one. They are unable to maintain the idealism of the coffee they carry, which is brewing single origin, single estate, single farm coffees that are processed by following a special coffee process.
Many closed their outlets, and only a few survived by adapting to the trend.
“There are not many idealistic coffee shops like that now left now,” the cafe owner tells me. “Maybe I’m one of the last ones left.”
Coffee Trends In Indonesia
Specialty coffee as a trend boomed across Indonesia throughout the 2010s. In Jakarta, the nation’s largest city, coffee shops such as 1/15 Coffee, Ombe Kofie, Tanamera Coffee, and a number of others have earned international attention and enjoy high profiles. In Yogyakarta there is Klinik Kopi, which has even been used as a movie shooting location, and in Bali—with its significant Australian influence—coffee bars have thrived. The trend has not only given birth to new coffee lovers who have switched to new methods, but also given rise to new coffee shops with concepts that have never existed before. Coffee shops came with Arabica coffee, somewhat in contrast to the previous tastes of people who tended to consume Robusta with a mixture of sugar or milk.
This change in consumer habits had a knock-on affect for Indonesia’s coffee production industry. Several specialty coffee processors rose up to serve the growing domestic specialty market, the number of trained cuppers increased, and farmers began managing their coffee plantations with specialty coffee markets in mind.
Talking to Sprudge, the Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI) President, Daryanto Witarsa, said coffee trends in Indonesia have changed along with the increasingly rapid development of the industry where coffee shop managers are motivated to follow market tastes. Some follow the demands of coffee connoisseurs’ tastes, for example, recently those who are fond of iced milk coffee, palm sugar coffee, and similar brews.
A Snapcart survey in 2023 indicated a change in coffee trends in Indonesia, where around 37% of Indonesians like iced palm sugar, or a favorite drink after latte and cappuccino. The survey seems to be confirmed by Witarsa, who is also a co-founder at Common Grounds Coffee Roasters, who told me that the trend of palm sugar coffee and iced coffee milk has indeed influenced the coffee culture and coffee shop business in Indonesia.
“Several times our customers have come and ordered palm sugar coffee,” Witarsa says. “We said, we only provide coffee without palm sugar. If you want to add palm sugar, please add it yourself.”
In some ways you can see a sharp line being drawn. Coffee shop owners like Daryanto Witarsa want customers to appreciate their product as a specialty beverage, and to at least sample it first before adding palm sugar. He’s not alone in this—cafes like Anomali, 1/15, First Crack, and Monolog, which consistently brew delicious espresso, cappuccino, and V60, are experiencing the same tension.
But for Witarsa and others, there’s still a huge market to go after. Many consumers of “coffee milk” are now being exposed to premium coffee for the first time. “There is a plus point, where people who used to drink coffee sachets, now drink coffee milk or specialty coffee at least once a week,” he said.
According to him, the increasingly hot climate affects the way people drink coffee. The top sales of several cafes in Jakarta are iced latte and iced Americano. “Even now, what is no less popular is V60 coffee mixed with ice (Japanese iced coffee),” he said.
The coffee trend in Indonesia has now also penetrated into concepts that were never imagined before. Many coffee shops do not prioritize the taste of the coffee, but the atmosphere. In Jakarta, for example, said Witarsa, the coffee trend has become increasingly nebulous. Coffee shops are no longer just for enjoying coffee, but have become places for clubbing, where visitors enjoy upbeat music from DJs until late at night.
“Now they can they be clubbing with iced milk coffee, and they can be happy,” he said laughing. “The coffee shop has live music, has a DJ, and the visitors are very crowded. Coffee places like that are currently trending in Jakarta. It’s really exciting!”
A Changing Specialty Market
Curious to know if the coffee milk trend is affecting specialty coffee sales, I spoke to Darwin Jasmin, a roasted and grounded coffee trader in Medan. Jasmin, who is familiarly called Awi, continues the business that his parents founded in 1945.
According to Awi, the coffee milk and palm sugar coffee trends are a new trend for Indonesians to enjoy coffee milk in a new way. In the past few decades, people drank coffee milk with low-quality Robusta coffee and sweetened condensed milk, so that the coffee was drinkable.
“But make no mistake, now the majority of Indonesians now drink coffee milk with specialty coffee, or at least with premium coffee (one level below specialty coffee) mixed with cream milk. For some Indonesian coffee lovers who like sweet drinks, coffee milk is very well received. I think this is a continuation of the third wave of coffee. People say there is no fourth wave of coffee, but in Indonesia this is a new era of coffee,” he said.
Awi’s parents, when they first started their business, sold Robusta coffee powder. After returning from college in Singapore in 2005, Awi began to change his business concept by following market trends, and roasting specialty Arabica coffee. He sold his coffee to coffee shop owners and home brewers and marketed it through supermarkets. Not only for the domestic market, but also for the overseas market.
According to Awi, coffee trends will continue to change and business people will follow the trend. Based on his sales statistics, the trend of milk coffee has actually had a positive impact on his coffee sales. The demand for specialty coffee with a darker roast level has increased from coffee shops along with the increasing popularity of iced milk coffee in cafes.
“In the past, specialty coffee was more often roasted at a medium level, but now specialty coffee is roasted rather dark, as long as that is the consumer demand that is trending, it is good for business,” he said.
Then what about specialty coffee which used to be very popular in the market? “The two go hand in hand, specialty coffee also still has its own connoisseurs, such as home brewers, while premium coffee for milk coffee is more for cafe entrepreneurs,” he said.
Interestingly, he said, the trend of coffee milk is an introduction for novice coffee drinkers to enter the wider realm of specialty coffee.
“Young people may not like drinking coffee at first, then try coffee milk, and from there are interested in trying various coffees, then they will explore specialty coffees,” he said.
In line with Awi, in big cities like Jakarta, the trend of coffee milk does not make specialty coffee abandoned. “Home brewers are now increasing, brewing coffee at home. This can be seen from the most popular competition in Indonesia, the Brewers Cup. Registration for this competition is usually sold out in minutes,” said Witarsa.
Of the approximately 1,500 SCAI members, consisting of more than 500 farmers, more than 200 roasters, and more than 500 coffee shop owners, now many roasters and farmers sell single origin coffee, such as Gayo coffee (Central Aceh), West Java to eastern Indonesia, through e-commerce websites.
“The micro-scale specialty coffee trade on a domestic scale is getting busier, so they don’t have to sell abroad,” he said.
Amidst this trend, SCAI is trying to face the challenge of keeping the specialty coffee market sustainable through various coffee events, including the Cup of Excellence (CoE). Held since 2021 in Indonesia, the coffee quality competition is attended by 300 farmers from all coffee producing regions. Farmers send their coffee samples to be curated by a panel of judges to be included in the coffee auction attended by coffee buyers from abroad and within the country.
“This competition encourages coffee farmers to be more active in producing better quality single origin coffee,” he said.
At the beginning of the event, 95% of buyers at the coffee auction were from abroad. However, last year, domestic buyers bought farmers’ coffee, indicating that local coffee business people’s appreciation for specialty coffee is getting better.
The impact of this CoE, added Witarsa, has at least succeeded in fostering coffee farmers to produce quality coffee sustainably. This is because the economic value achieved is more than enough to motivate them.
“Last year the total auction reached $400,000USD, from 20 types of coffee, as much as one lot (300 kg), but the impact of the continuation can be obtained five to 10 times as much when a number of importers return to buy farmers’ coffee,” he said.
He also saw the current coffee trend actually enriching the Indonesian coffee industry, because it actually increases the market share of the coffee industry. Indonesia’s resources as a producer of specialty coffee also make Indonesia one of the world’s coffee axes.
This is also the reason why SCA approved SCAI’s pitch to host the international coffee event World of Coffee, which will be held at the Jakarta Convention Center, May 15-17, 2025.
“It took two years until SCA finally approved our pitch,” said Witarsa. The event will host the World Brewers Cup, and it is hoped that it will have an impact on farmers and baristas in Indonesia.
In every regional barista competition in Indonesia, every barista is required to use Indonesian coffee, and this encourages them to encourage farmers to be able to produce the best coffee.
“This motivates baristas and farmers to work together to produce good coffee,” he said.
An Impact On Coffee Production
At the farmer level, specialty coffee has created its own market amidst the changing trends.
Hendra Maulizar, a coffee farmer in Pantan Musara Village, Takengon, Central Aceh, said that the current coffee trend has not had a negative impact on the market share of his specialty coffee. Production remains stable and sometimes demand increases. He said that the trend of milk coffee actually revives his sales, because a number of his customers, mostly coffee shop owners, use specialty coffee for their milk coffee and palm sugar coffee.
“Do all iced milk coffee use bad coffee? No. In fact, by using good coffee, it will be even better,” said Hendra, who has recorded his specialty coffee record at the Cup of Excellence since 2022.
Starting to continue his parents’ coffee plantation since 2010, together with a number of coffee farmers in his village, they are able to produce up to 80 tons of premium coffee a year. Around 15% of the total comes from the 10 hectares of his coffee plantation, which his parents used to manage.
However, even though Indonesia has known the term specialty coffee for the past decade, specialty coffee has not been understood contextually by all coffee businessmen, especially at the domestic level. The lack of synchronization between coffee farmers and buyers still occurs. “Not everyone has the same understanding of specialty coffee, both at the farmer and buyer levels. Some already understand, but there are still many who don’t,” he said.
He feels fortunate that through CoE he found the same perception of specialty coffee and found the right buyers to buy his coffee at a good price. His coffee buyers include importers from Japan and the United States, as well as domestic customers from Jakarta, Bali and several big cities.
“But in the reality of trade it is not always like that, ” Maulizar says. “There are even those who do not understand specialty coffee and offer our coffee at an unreasonable (low) price. I think buyers like that do not understand specialty coffee.”
With conditions like that, Hendra does not really glorify his coffee as specialty coffee to capture a wider market. “I always call my coffee premium coffee, even though for me it is specialty coffee, but not everyone necessarily considers it special.”
The current coffee trend makes the Indonesian coffee industry, now and perhaps in the future, increasingly commercial. A number of coffee shop business owners will tend not to look too much at coffee from whether it is specialty coffee or not, but more importantly whether the coffee has a good taste and has a selling value.
Perhaps there’s something to this idea of a “fourth wave”—that specialty coffee production, a rise in quality, and the introduction of specialized brewing methods can meet popular consumption styles, such as “coffee milk” and coffees with added flavors, resulting in drinks that are totally delicious and distinct in their own way. Maybe the fourth wave has been here with us in Indonesia all along?
Tonggo Simangunsong is a freelance journalist based in Medan City, North Sumatra, Indonesia, the author of Medan Coffee Guide. Read more Tonggo Simangunsong for Sprudge.