Bali Blue Moon Organic
A SEDUCTIVE DARK ROAST
Roasting in October: Bali Blue Moon Organic. This limited release is part of the Peet’s Small Batch Subscription series, an outstanding way to experience unique, rare coffee microlots fresh from our Roastery to your doorstep.
Indonesian coffees have been a staple here at Peet's since our founding. The most popular and well-known is Sumatra. But other Indonesian islands like Sulawesi, Flores, and Bali produce gorgeous coffees with distinctive characters. Bali Blue Moon Organic is one of those coffees.
As a vacation destination, Bali is famous—but drive just a couple hours from the splashy beachside resorts, and it’s a different world. The Kintamani region hugs the slopes of Mount Batur, and this coffee is grown in these lush highlands at around 5,000 feet.
Indonesian Wet Hulling, or Giling Basah
The coffee cherries are harvested by a network of Balinese farmers called a Subak Abian—a traditional farmer organization in upland Bali—between May and October. Coffee cultivation follows the ancient tradition of prosperity, a philosophy focused on the harmonization between the environment, humans, and God. Which means no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers were used to cultivate this organic microlot. Due to the humid, rainy climate, coffee is processed differently in Indonesia than elsewhere, hulled and dried in a series of steps that expose the bean to unique tropical influences. It’s a risky, less consistent practice, called Giling Basah, but it’s what gives Indonesian coffees their weighty spice and satisfaction. And it’s what gives these beans the striking dark blue-green color for which they’re named.
An elegant cup with a clean finish
Bali Blue Moon has the same spicy, complex notes and backbone as Sumatra, just a bit finer. With less of the earthy, herbal punch, it starts and ends with smooth. Weighty in the cup, with dark chocolate and caramel notes and a syrupy body, it’s a great complement to blustery weather. An ideal mug to cradle in your hands as the weather starts to turn. It truly holds onto origin character (what we look for in these limited release coffees!) and roast. This organic lot is a real stand out.
NOTES FROM THE PEET'S ROASTERY
"Woodsy notes in the roast, dark chocolate and caramel in the cup."
We roast a lot of Indonesian coffees here at Peet’s. Sumatra is our most regular companion, both as a single origin and as part of some of our most popular blends. And Sulawesi-Kalosi has garnered a near-cult following. Wet hulled beans from the archipelago all react to the same roasting methods, albeit each with its own nuanced character. Case in point is this striking coffee from Bali.
When they came to us green, the beans looked like a meticulously sorted Sulawesi, evenly colored green tinged with blue (hence the name), and with a rough chaff line and matte surface. Opening the bags, we were struck with sweet wafts of earthy aroma, like fresh grass and grain.
The Bali Blue Moon Organic roasts went well. The overall test roast times were slightly inconsistent, and it took more skill to roast to the color we were looking for than last year's crop. First and second crack were sharp but very quiet. Second crack was especially quiet, but the one or two snaps we could hear were a reliable cue to start looking for color and estimating the discharge temperature. Wanting to take off from the starting line a little faster or slower from batch to batch, ultimately the coffee responded well to changes in heat and getting a reasonable finish was not hard.
In the end, the grass and grain tones evaporated completely, giving way to a drier, woodsier aroma. We found this year's profile to be incredibly sweet, floral, and complex. It cooled nicely, and had especially lovely notes of aromatic wood and hibiscus, with a pleasant full body. Delicious on its own brewed in a French Press with a slug of cream to round out that caramel note, it would be a lovely brew to have on hand in a thermos on a crisp, autumnal walk in the woods.
-John Nicolini and Michael Madden, Roasters
LIMITED RELEASE PEET’S COFFEES
You might think that a monthly coffee subscription sounds amazing in and of itself, but Peet’s Small Batch coffee-of-the-month takes it a step further. These are microlot coffees, which is why you can only find them at peets.com and you can only access them if you have a subscription. They’re special—their rarity means they can sell out—fast. Subscribing ensures you get to taste each one of these remarkable lots. And if you’re a tried-and-true fan and subscribe to of one of our other coffees or subscription series, not to worry: you can do an add-on of this limited release to your next shipment. At least, while it lasts.