In Search of Kopi!

I realized I never finished this post about the search for kopi--as in wholesale, non-packaged, not marked up by a distributor, mounds-of-beans-in-a-store coffee.

Well, as far as we have figured out, this doesn't exist in Jakarta, at least for those of us who don't own coffee shps or aren't Indonesian. Most of the Indonesians I've asked haven't heard of a place like this either. Maybe at the plantations themselves? We'll see.

So Julia and I headed up to North Jakarta to a vague area Justina, our co-worker, had directed us to to a place called "Kawi Shop" that apparently sold beans by the kilo. First of all, she gave us the name of a mall that it was "near." Upon arrival, no one in the mall, including employees at two different coffee shops, had heard of this place. We hopped in a bajaj whose driver said he knew where it was; he proceeded to take us to a giant shopping center that is closed on Sundays. Great. Further discussions with guards at the shopping center and not wanting to give up led us to some narrow streets of Chinatown (that totally reminded me of Malaysia!), where we went down a narrow alley lined with food stalls until we found a place called "Toko Kawi," Toko being the Indonesian word for coffee! After an hour and a half of wandering, had we found our destination?

Yes, and no. This was a drugstore with four large glass jars of coffee, one labelled Coffee Luwak, none cheaper than at your average US grocery store. We asked the owner if there were any other places nearby that sold coffee wholesale, and he said no, this was it. Discouraged, we went outside and tried to use Julia's iPhone to find another place nearby, but I had already done tons of google searches for wholesale coffee and Jakarta and we couldn't find anything different.

So Julia started asking the food vendors, none of whom really spoke English; most of whom spoke Chinese and a little Indonesian. The fifth or so go she asked wrote down TWO places, and with help along the way to them, we ended up in the basement of yet another marketplace/shopping center in front of a small nook FILLED WITH COFFEE. His nook was small, but his selection was from all over Indonesia, and he had Coffee Luwak (perhaps not original, but let's say it was) for way cheaper than at the grocery stores. So we loaded up--3 kilos for me, 4 for Julia, from a selection of regions. Here's hoping we clear customs!

Satisfied, we headed for Pasa Raya to get souvenirs of the non-coffee kind. This. Store. Is. GIGANTIC. I cannot explain how many traditional crafts they have--an entire floor, probably the size of a floor at the NYC Macy's of handicrafts; another floor of batik. I loaded up, though not on batik--I'm waiting to visit Yogyakarta for that on my last two days here (hope I still have room in my bags!)