The Biggest Starbucks in South East Asia
Dewata Starbucks is not your regular starbucks. It is the biggest Starbucks in South East Asia that offers more than just drinking coffee. Inside this compound, you can find coffee plantations, displays of coffee beans, interactive experience and also massive buildings that are built based on amalgamation of Balinese living and also Starbucks. For those of you who often drink Starbucks, this should be on your list at least once in a lifetime. Today, I will take you around the compound and experience the coffee tour, virtually.
Located in a place called Sunset Road, it’s not that difficult to find this place. There are many ways to reach the place including riding a moped or even using online transportation. Upon reaching the lobby, it feels like you are entering a hotel room. There are some signs on the wall that say, “ Rahajeng Rauh Ring Starbucks Reserve Dewata” which means welcome to the Starbucks Reserve Dewata. There is also a brief description about the place that basically mentioned, That the place is a sensory experience paying homage to Indonesian coffee and its culture. As you walk inside on the left side there will be the starbucks counter where you can order drinks and the next one on the right is where you can ask about Starbucks and its experience.
From Seed To Cup
I went to the Starbucks experience centre right after ordering a special dewata drink that is only available in that place. It’s called Dewata Latte but more about that later. So, I went to the learning experience centre where I was greeted by the staff who was explaining to me about the available experiences that I can take in the place. In this place, visitors can take either the Dewata coffee tour, starbucks basic latte making, and also coffee flights. I took the coffee tour which cost 100000 IDR or equals to 7$ that includes a 30 minutes tour and a free tall butterfly pea tea with cherry.
The first place that we’re going is exactly at the entrance. In that tour, the guide is explaining the philosophy of the logo that is different from other starbucks. In a nutshell, it was meant to reflect the coffee culture and balinese living.
The tour continued to the coffee plantation where the place mimics the small farmers plantation which is 10x10 metres. The coffee plantations are mostly arabica but in that place, they are doing crossbreeding that could grow in a lower elevation and hotter climate. The guide also explained about the existence of tamarind which shades the coffee from direct exposure to sunlight. Around the plantation, you can see more information boards that are available. Though you can do the tour by yourself, having a guide would be best because they also explain many things and answer the curiosity that you have about starbucks and coffee. In the middle of the coffee plantation there is a zoetrope that attempts to illustrate the significance of women in coffee production.
Fun fact : for one espresso Starbucks, it takes 25 cherries to produce it. And in one tree, there’s only around 48 cherries.
The significance of women in coffee production
Paying homage to the women who contribute a lot to the coffee production, this Starbucks reserve dedicates a zoetrope, one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. filled with a woman picking the cherries. Apparently, in Indonesia, the ones who pick the coffee cherries are mostly women. When you move the zoetrope, it will also produce a sound that’s coming from Indonesian traditional music called “angklung”. And on the wall, there is also a mural of a woman picking cherries.
Beans to your cup
After picking the cherries, there are a couple more steps before the beans can get into your cup. The first one is the process of pressing the cherries into the hopper that would extract the cherries into the coffee beans. The next step is separating the fruit and the beans and then washing and sorting. During this process, the higher quality beans would sink and the bad ones would float. After that process, comes the washing part and also the drying process where the farmers spread them evenly before getting the coffee into the dry meal. In this reserve, you can also notice the difference in colour between inferior quality beans and also the higher quality beans. The next tour comes inside the place where I was taken to explore the interior and exterior philosophy from Dewata Starbucks Reserve.
Interactive Experience
The interactive experience room showcases all the processes on a screen that you can touch and play with. One thing that is interesting is the roasting starbucks that are only available in three options, light, medium and dark. However in recent years there are blond roast as well but not available in Dewata starbucks reserve. The guide mentioned that for starbucks, all the roasting process happens in seattle. Meaning, all the beans are exported from Indonesia to Seattle just so it can be roasted, packaged and sold back to Starbucks all over the world including Indonesia.
Another interesting trivia is that in Dewata starbucks reserve they are allowed and licensed to roast just for Aceh beans. Their machine is fully automatic and they even roast it online using the internet.
Rich in Symbolism and philosophy on its Architecture
This place was built intuitively by corportating so many aspects of culture and coffee inside. You would not realise that even the tiles have meanings. And why the stairs were built in a certain way or the table that actually mimics the field in tegalalang rice field, a well known beautiful rice field in Bali. On the wall is a relief that showcases different regions of coffee producers in Indonesia. Then, upstairs is more seats and also nursery room. Funny thing was, I thought the nursery room was for an actual nursery but it was actually for coffee. The guide mentioned that some of the coffee plantation will be sent back to the original place and shared with locals farmers.
Roasting Place
In the final tour, I was taken to the roasting place which has its building shapes like besek, a plate made of bamboo that is significant in balinese culture. Inside the place is the centre to learn about coffee. Not to mention, I was shown the sophisticated roasting process that uses the internet. The machine could also sort different types of coffee and make sure that it’s only producing the highest quality of beans that will go in our cup. Not to mention, it has low carbon emission instead of the regular roasting process. The tour ended after I was shown the storage room which was set to a certain temperature to avoid fungi from growing.
The guide asked me if I’ve been to a local coffee shop in Yogyakarta as she’s interested in many local cafes in the province because she thought it’s interesting. I told her that though I go there, I spend a lot of time inside Starbucks from morning to night. Only in Bali, I don’t rely on Starbucks because I find many great cafes and barista's at much cheaper prices.
Is it worth it?
If you like coffee and especially more if you like Starbucks the coffee tour is worth it. The main idea of this reserve was learning behind Starbucks operation that could open your eyes about their operation, their contribution and how their coffee is made. One thing that I find mindblowing is how the coffee is exported to seattle just to be roasted and then sent back to Indonesia to be packaged and sold.
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 | Mac is a jack of all trades. A typical introvert in love with literature, books, technology and philosophy. She is also so into nootropics, productivity, minimalist lifestyle, cybersecurity, and languages. Other than that, she is passionate about cooking and traveling. In her free time, she enjoys learning various things. If you like her content, don't hesitate to upvote, leave a comment or a feedback. A re-blog is also appreciated. |