Coffee and Cafe Culture in Yogyakarta
Part of the Yogyakarta travel guide — see every topic in All Yogyakarta Guides.
Yogyakarta drinks a great deal of coffee, for two reasons: it is a student city where a cafe is a study space, and Java is a coffee island with growing regions a couple of hours away. The scene splits between the traditional — kopi tubruk, ground coffee simply boiled and left to settle, sold from carts for 5,000 rupiah — and a specialty wave of small roasters doing single-origin pour-overs from Gayo, Toraja, Flores and the Java highlands for 25,000–45,000.
Kopi joss and the angkringan
The city's signature is kopi joss: black coffee with a lump of glowing charcoal from the brazier dropped straight into the glass, which hisses, foams and supposedly reduces the acidity. It was invented at Angkringan Lik Man on Jalan Wongsodirjan behind Tugu station in the 1960s and is still made there. The charcoal is bought as fuel and the science is debatable, but it tastes noticeably smoother and it costs about 5,000 rupiah. Drink it sitting on a mat at the cart, with grilled skewers and a nasi kucing parcel.
The specialty scene
Klinik Kopi, out towards the north of the city, is the best known and works as a single-origin bar where the owner talks you through the beans before brewing; it opens in the evening and there is often a queue. Kalitan, Blanco, Epic and Simetri are among the reliable third-wave places. Filosofi Kopi — named after the novel and film — is the tourist-facing one and is fine. Most sit south and east of the centre in the student quarters. Expect 25,000–45,000 rupiah for a pour-over and 20,000–35,000 for espresso drinks, which is half Bali's prices.
Where the beans come from
Java grows arabica on the highland plateaus, and the Merapi and Menoreh slopes near Yogyakarta both produce coffee at 700–1,400 metres. Menoreh in particular, in the hills towards Borobudur, has a growing smallholder specialty sector and several farms run tours and cuppings. Indonesian coffee more broadly is what fills the menus: Gayo from Aceh, Mandheling from North Sumatra, Toraja from Sulawesi, and Flores from the eastern islands, most of it wet-hulled, which produces the earthy, low-acid profile that Indonesian coffee is known for.
Cafes as workspaces
Yogyakarta is a good, cheap place to work remotely and the cafes know it. Wi-fi is generally fast and free, power sockets are common, and nobody minds a laptop for three hours provided you keep ordering. The student cafes around Jalan Kaliurang and the UGM and UNY campuses stay open late and are the cheapest. Living costs are among the lowest of any Indonesian city with decent infrastructure — a room is 1.5–4 million rupiah a month — which is why a small long-stay foreign community has grown here without the scale or prices of Bali.
Coffee and Cafe Culture at a glance
| Signature | Kopi joss — charcoal dropped into black coffee, ~IDR 5,000 |
|---|---|
| Invented at | Angkringan Lik Man, Jalan Wongsodirjan |
| Pour-over | IDR 25,000–45,000 — about half Bali prices |
| Local growing area | Menoreh hills, 700–1,400 m |
| Best known roaster | Klinik Kopi — evenings, expect a queue |
| Working | Fast free wi-fi; student cafes open late |