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Delectable Stories from a Korean Coffee Master in Indonesia  -  Lee Jin Ho

Lee Jin Ho

“For now, I want to focus on my current job. Once I obtain the outcomes I aimed for, I will go back to coffee.” Korean coffee master Lee Jin Ho works as a production manager for an Indonesian sewing company. In 2011, when the Dutch coffee craze was at its peak in Korea, Lee closed his café and moved to Indonesia, Asia’s second-largest coffee producer, and opened a café in Jakarta. He has temporarily left the coffee business to prepare for a new endeavor but is still passionate about coffee and the people who love this long-time favorite beverage. For our January issue, ACH Monthly met with Lee, whose dream is to share Indonesia’s fragrant coffee and beautiful natural environment with consumers worldwide.

Q. Please briefly introduce yourself for readers of ACH Monthly.

Hello! My name is Lee Jin Ho, and I live in Indonesia. I moved to Jakarta in September 2011 with my wife and daughter. I started with a Dutch coffee and chocolate shop in north Jakarta. Right now, I work at a sewing company in Java, which is in central Indonesia.

Q. Why did you move to Indonesia?

I first went to Jakarta as a sort of prolonged business trip: I wanted to focus on the import and export of green beans and open a café. While planning to open a business with a foreigner permit, I visited many coffee farms throughout Indonesia. It was then that I decided to move here for good. I wanted to try something new with my knowledge of coffee technologies in “Batavia” (former name of Jakarta), often considered the birthplace of Dutch coffee. Indonesia did not feel very “foreign” for me: I’d visited several times before opening my café [in Korea] when I was working for a clothing supplier. I also had a friend from college living here.

Q. In the late 2000s, you operated a café called Miz Moren in Hongdae and are credited as having started Korea’s Dutch coffee boom. Of the many areas you could have chosen from, is there a particular reason you chose a career in the coffee business?

I was completely captivated by a chance taste of Dutch coffee. I decided to start my own business while working for a clothing supplier, many years ago, after which I briefly lived in Japan. It is there that I studied cooking for a little while, through the help of a friend who’s a chef. I was making rounds of franchise stores in order to learn how to run a restaurant. I happened to stop at a café in Osaka, where I ordered a cup of Dutch coffee. It tasted so good! I wasn’t able to sleep that night because I ordered several additional cups: I definitely felt a “this is it!” realization about coffee. I immediately changed my focus from the restaurant to the café business and studied coffee in Nagoya, from roasting to extracting. After returning to Korea, I opened my Dutch coffee café in Hongdae. It had eight cold brew coffee makers which could collectively produce about 30 liters per day.

Q. Most people know that Indonesia is famous for its luwak coffee. We suspect that this is not the only kind. How would you describe the best features of Indonesian coffee?

Luwak coffee, which is made with the dried seeds found in the feces of civets that have eaten coffee cherries, is only made in very small quantities. It is definitely one of Indonesia’s most popular coffees because of the fragrance, which stays for a long time after the seeds are roasted. However, after I saw civets individually caged at a coffee farm and eating raw coffee cherries, I no longer drink it unless it is for a coffee evaluation. There are many other kinds of coffee in Indonesia that each have a different appeal based on the soil quality and climate of the place where they are grown. The most famous coffee-growing areas are Mandheling, Aceh, and Lintong in Sumatra; Flores; Toraja; and Papua. There’s a shop in the city of Bandung that sells only roasted beans, which is purchased from almost all coffee-producing regions of Indonesia. It takes advantage of Bandung’s climate, which is relatively cool year-round, and ripens raw beans in a cellar for 3-5 years. The beans are roasted with a German wood-burning roasting machine that is 100 years old, which really brings out the unique flavors of local beans.

In Korea, a lot of cafes that specialize in drip coffee and espresso popped up due to economic development and people’s increasing awareness of leisure activities and dessert culture. In Indonesia, instant coffee is still preferred over these kinds of coffees. There are some who appreciate hand-drip coffee, but people generally like coffee that has sugar or a flavored syrup added to it rather than the natural taste of the beans. Another feature of Indonesia’s coffee culture is the enjoying of coffee along with tea and a smoke because of the large number of tea and tobacco fields.

Q. You are currently working at a sewing company. If it is OK with you, can you explain why you changed from coffee to sewing?

I started a coffee business with my own money, but I had to close the café in north Jakarta after three years because of location problems. The business I started after that with some locals and Koreans was not profitable. I had to find work in order to support my family, who left everything and came to this country because of me. I fortunately got a job with a sewing company thanks to the help of some Korean residents. I worked very hard, with the notion that I was starting over. It is because of this job—busily moving around physically, interacting with people, learning new things—that I rediscovered a driving force for my life.

Q. You are not in the coffee business right now, but still referred to and recognized as a “coffee master.” Do you still treat your family and friends to coffee that you made yourself?

Yes, of course. There are people in the business, both from Korea and Indonesia, who ask questions about Indonesian coffee. I answer their questions and make them coffee to taste-test. At work, I treat my coworkers to coffee I brewed myself and occasionally give gifts of drip bags that I made at home with freshly-roasted coffee. With friends who are currently in the coffee business, I host sessions where we taste Indonesian coffee and discuss the flavors and fragrances of coffee per region.

Q. How did you learn Indonesian?

I studied every day from a book a friend gave me and with MP3 files I downloaded from a language study website. I also talked a lot with the locals. Book learning is good, but I think the best way to learn a language is to make friends and have conversations—both light-hearted and “deep”—with native speakers.

Q. This is your ninth year in Indonesia. From a Korean’s perspective, what do you think are the country’s strengths? And what are some positive aspects of Korea that you would like to share with Indonesians?

The majority of Indonesians are not impatient or hasty. There are some hot-tempered people, but I feel that, in general, Indonesians have a leisurely mindset—perhaps because their country is rich in resources and food. What I want to share about Korea with Indonesians is our “can-do” attitude and persistence in the face of hardship.

Q.Who was your first Indonesian friend?

I had just opened my café—literally, just days ago. It was then that Aurisuno, the owner of a nearby padang [traditional Indonesian meal of rice and various side dishes] restaurant, came by. He was interested in our coffee and visited often: we talked a lot about coffee and life. Aurisuno taught me Indonesia’s language and culture, and I told him about coffee and Korean culture. I once did an interview with NET TV, and Aurisuno acted as an interpreter between me and the production director. He always brings a cake at the end of the year to take home to my family. He’s a wonderful person.

Q. Is there a particularly fun or interesting incident that you remember from your life in Indonesia?

There were a lot of incidents with Lee Sung-woo, whom I met when I first opened my café in north Jakarta, and who is still a good friend. He is better known as the lead singer of No Brain, the Korean band. He invited all of the local Koreans to the café on opening day, where he gave a mini-concert. He invited me to SM Concert, a huge concert that was held at Jakarta BWM Stadium, giving me and my Indonesian employees the experience of a lifetime. 

   I also remember teaching wine and coffee classes for the teachers and the principal of the Jakarta Indonesia Korean School and students of the Korean Cultural Center in Indonesia. It was really fun—my wife, who is a chocolatier, gave a chocolate-making class alongside my wine and coffee classes.

Q. Is there anything you want to try in the future?

For now, I want to do my best in my current area of work. I am a production manager at a sewing plant with over 2,000 workers. I would like to show them how to work more efficiently and manage work processes in accordance with a better-organized system to produce noticeable outcomes. Once these outcomes settle into place, which will take some time, I am thinking of going back to coffee. For the long-term, I want to use my experiences with visiting coffee farms all over Indonesia to operate a café alongside a coffee and cacao farm tour. I want to share with others the comfort I found in Indonesia’s pristine natural environment as well as how to make coffee and chocolate.

Q. There are many Korean citizens living in Indonesia and other countries throughout the world. Do you have any advice for them?

I recently saw an article in the news that I was very moved by. It explained how Sandra Nathan, an American Peace Corps volunteer who was in Korea 50 years ago, received a COVID-19 gift box and silk fan from the Korea Foundation. The gift shows that Korea did not forget about those who selflessly came to its aid in the country’s poorest and most difficult times. I decided to work with more sincerity of spirit so that my Indonesian coworkers can remember me—and, hopefully, Korea in general—many years later with fondness. 

   We are all living in unprecedented times because of COVID-19: people cannot meet one another to keep each other safe, and we can’t visit Korea anymore because you have to include a two-week isolation period (that can’t be covered with a normal paid holiday). I would like for Koreans, nevertheless, to never forget that we used to receive aid but today are strong enough to provide it. I would like us to endure these difficult times, far from our home country, with that pride. Each day of our lives, whether happy or full of hardship, ends up becoming a highly-enriching “fertilizer”—something that we realize long afterward. Let’s concentrate on making the most of and enjoying our lives wherever in the world we are right now!