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ABCD takes coffee to a whole new level
School of Coffee: Trainers Hendri Kurniawan (left) and Ve Handojo tend the coffee kiosk called A Bunch of Caffeine Dealers (ABCD) at Pasar Santa traditional market in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta
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span class="inline inline-center">School of Coffee: Trainers Hendri Kurniawan (left) and Ve Handojo tend the coffee kiosk called A Bunch of Caffeine Dealers (ABCD) at Pasar Santa traditional market in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. JP/Jerry Adiguna
From malls to restaurants, coffee shops are flourishing throughout Jakarta, if not across the archipelago. But one particular coffee kiosk has become a hit since opening in an unlikely place.
It all started with #ngopidipasar (having coffee at a traditional market), when a bunch of caffeine dealers decided to take their coffee kiosk onto social media earlier this year. After a number of clicks and reposts, the hashtag went viral and the kiosk has been seeing full-house attendance every time it 'pops up' ever since.
The coffee kiosk, which is called exactly that ' A Bunch of Caffeine Dealers (ABCD) ' is, surprisingly, not a coffee shop.
The place, located at Pasar Santa traditional market in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta is a training ground, or, as they call it, a School of Coffee; a place to study the ABCs of coffee with classes open for two to three students every weekday. But they do have 'pop up' sessions every now and then for the general public.
That day, two trainers ' certified world barista championship judge and coffee consultant, Hendri Kurniawan, and cofounder Ve Handojo, who is also a coffee enthusiast ' were giving a class to two 'students', when all of a sudden a group of visitors came in.
Hendri and Ve told them the kiosk was not open to the public that day as there was a class going on, but decided to serve them coffee anyway because they had the beans.
'We don't have fixed opening hours,' said Ve, adding that the kiosk was open to the public based on availability of the beans and whether or not the cofounders had overlapping events. The only way they notify of their pop-up times is through their @abcd_coffee Instagram account.
When the ABCD kiosk is open to the public, mostly on the weekends, 'students' of the ABCD School of Coffee, who vary from coffee enthusiasts to baristas and café owners, get to practice the skills they learned from the trainers.
'I want to produce baristas [...] The growth of cafés is faster than that of baristas,' Hendri said, adding a philanthropic mission to this trending place. The ABCD School of Coffee has teamed up with the SOS Children's Villages/SOS Kinderdorf to train orphans at a productive age. These children are trained by the ABCD before being channeled to cafés that need employees.
'I just want to give them skills,' Hendri said after a class with two 'students' in the kiosk's 2 x 6 meter space, just about big enough to accommodate the coffee machines, a mini working space and up to 10 people squeezed in.
Outside the kiosk, the view does not resemble the typical decent Jakarta coffee shops with rustic or minimalist design. The tables are made of bottled water crates and the seats are piles of colorful painted leftover wood.
The ABCD kiosk serves different coffee beans from around the world, from Brazil to Hong Kong, depending on the availability of the beans. Most beans are donated by participants of the coffee-related competitions worldwide that Hendri judges.
'So the beans here cannot be tasted at any other café. We open based on availability ' without coffee beans we cannot open. We don't roast, so we don't have a constant supply,' said Hendri, an architecture graduate, who applied his studies to his consultancy business in designing coffee shops.
Hence the generous donations. The coffee at ABCD is free for visitors at the weekend. But there's a tall red tip jar standing somewhere around the kiosk asking visitors to be 'as generous as you can be' in appreciating the coffee and their experience there. Most end up spending more than what they would have spent at a commercial café.
The ABCD kiosk serves about 4 kilograms of coffee in the five hours of their pop-up session, or roughly 400 cups. That compares with an average consumption of 2 kilograms per week at standard Jakarta coffee shops.
Indonesians now enjoy coffee more than ever before, with demand likely to jump 33 percent to 400,000 tons in the next two years from 300,000 tons estimated this year, according to the Indonesian Coffee Exporters and Industries Association (AEKI). Consumption per capita is also expected to surge to 1.54 kilograms from 1.19 kilograms.
Coffee output is also expected to climb to a record high in 2016, placing Indonesia as the world's third biggest coffee producer.
Visitors also feel the fun vibe as they flock into the market on the weekend and occupy the whole second floor, where ABCD stands alongside record store Sub Store and other merchants selling various items from food to clothes and shoes.
'(The ABCD) is very generous as they don't give price tags on very, very good coffee,' said Ananditha Mayasari, a 29-year-old coffee enthusiast who has tried having coffee at several modern markets in the city.
In the workshop, the ABCD 'students' do not get good or bad grades. Instead they get the chance to experiment and have fun with rare coffee beans.
ABCD School of Coffee charges Rp 5 million for a complete package of four classes: Appreciation for coffee, Brewing, Cup tasting and Definitive espresso. The price for each class varies, starting from Rp 500,000 for the 'appreciation' session.
'We want to be baristas, but if we establish our own café, [the pressure] will be much bigger than if it's just a hobby,' said one unnamed 39-year-old accountant who took a brewing class at the ABCD workshop on a weekday during office hours. 'We are running away from reality,' he said jokingly. Hendri concurred: 'Some people take brewing coffee as a form of therapy. It's enjoyable.'
