What Kind of Coffee Do We Want to Bring to the Table?

Coffee in Banyuwangi continues to evolve.

More coffee shops are introducing new origins, fermentation methods, infused beans, and experimental processes. Some cups may remind us of blueberry, tropical fruit, wine, spices, or even dessert.

We find this side of modern coffee exciting, and at Kuncikuppi, filter coffee is where we give it room to be explored.

Filter brewing allows the origin, variety, and process to speak more clearly—sometimes clean and delicate, sometimes fruity, fermented, or unusual.

A Different Role for Espresso

Our espresso is built to feel classic.

As the foundation of our cappuccino, latte, americano, and many everyday favourites, it needs natural sweetness, gentle acidity, a rounded body, and enough depth to remain present with milk.

A cappuccino should still taste clearly like coffee. The espresso should complement the sweetness and texture of the milk rather than compete with it through an overly dominant or heavily fermented character.

This direction also reflects the different ways people experience Kuncikuppi. Some arrive curious about origins, varieties, and processing methods. Others simply want breakfast, warm bread, and a familiar cappuccino while looking over the fields of Licin.

We want the coffee to feel considered without requiring everyone to understand its technical details.

A Coffee Story from Telemung

Alongside this everyday espresso, we also want to make room for coffee that represents the place we call home.

Many people encounter the name “Ijen coffee” through Arabica grown across the wider Ijen–Raung highlands, most commonly associated with neighbouring Bondowoso. But Banyuwangi has another coffee story—one found closer to its villages, farms, and everyday coffee culture.

At Kuncikuppi, we introduce that story through Robusta from Telemung, a coffee-growing village here in Banyuwangi.

Served as a traditional kopi tubruk or prepared as espresso, Telemung offers a different expression of local coffee. Its naturally bold body and familiar roasted character—often reminiscent of roasted corn, cacao, and nuts—feel closely connected to the way coffee has long been enjoyed in this region.

The Telemung Robusta we serve is sourced by Sebuah Rasa through farmers and processors they trust. Bringing forward its familiar roasted character requires a particularly careful roast.

Through repeated tasting and evaluation, we found that roasting it too far can easily cover its roasted-corn character with heavier, burnt flavours. Roasted too lightly, and it may not develop the sweetness, body, and depth we are looking for.

Sebuah Rasa translates that direction into small-batch roasts, finding the narrow window where sweetness, structure, and Telemung’s familiar roasted quality can come together without covering what was already shaped at origin.

For guests who want to connect more closely with the source, farmers, and landscape behind the coffee, we recommend visiting Omah Kopi Telemung. They are experienced processors whose work with local farmers and plantations has long inspired us.

There, Telemung coffee can be enjoyed closer to where it is grown—surrounded by plantations and traditional Osing wooden houses. It offers a different way of understanding the coffee: through not only its flavour, but also the people, place, and traditions behind it.

Experiencing Telemung in this setting also brings attention to the landscape that shapes the coffee long before it reaches the roastery.

Some associate its familiar roasted character with the volcanic environment surrounding Ijen. The soil and growing conditions may contribute to the coffee’s foundation, but flavour is never shaped by the land alone. Variety, cherry maturity, processing, drying, and roasting all play a part in what eventually reaches the cup.

Building Our House Espresso

Our house espresso brings together 70% Arabica and 30% Robusta, selected for sweetness, rounded body, and depth.

Together with Sebuah Rasa, we choose components that support rather than overpower one another: Robusta for structure and depth, and Arabica for sweetness, aroma, and gentle acidity.

The blend is also developed with our signature arenga sugar in mind. Harvested around Kuncikuppi and traditionally produced across Desa Banjar, it carries a deep, familiar caramel sweetness. The espresso needs enough presence to sit naturally beside it without disappearing beneath the sugar or competing too sharply with it.

Coffee for Different Moments

Not every cup needs to be surprising to feel meaningful. Sometimes coffee is simply part of the moment: an americano beside breakfast, a cappuccino with warm bread, or a kopi tubruk that reminds someone of home.

At Kuncikuppi, each coffee has its own role: filter coffee gives us room to explore, our house espresso brings everyday familiarity, and Telemung allows us to share a local story rooted in Banyuwangi.

Staying classic does not mean standing still. It means making coffee distinctive enough to be remembered, yet familiar enough to be enjoyed often—whether by someone ordering their first cappuccino or someone who has followed specialty coffee for years.

Perhaps one of the greatest compliments we can receive is seeing different generations sitting at the same table, each enjoying coffee in their own way.