Aceh Kopi Saring

Kopi saring, “strained coffee”, is the coffee of Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra. Ground coffee goes into a cloth filter, hot water is poured through, and the coffee is poured back and forth between pots, the way Malaysians “pull” teh tarik, until it’s smooth and lightly foamy. Served black, it’s strong and full-bodied; with a little milk and sugar, frothed up, it becomes kopi sanger, Aceh’s own coffee with milk. And it’s drunk in a warkop, the coffee stalls that line Banda Aceh’s streets. Here’s how it’s made.

The short version

• Coffee strained through cloth, not left in the cup.
• Poured between pots to smooth it, like teh tarik.
• Kopi hitam (black) or kopi sanger (with a little milk and sugar, frothy).
• Drunk in warkop, Aceh’s ever-present coffee shops.
• Taught as a craft: Banda Aceh’s job training centre runs kopi saring courses.

How is kopi saring made?

Good News From Indonesia describes the method, comparing it to making teh tarik:

1. Coffee powder goes into a cloth strainer (saringan kain).
2. Hot water is poured through it into a container.
3. The coffee is poured from one container to another, back and forth.
4. It’s poured into a cup.
5. For sanger, milk and sugar are added and stirred until it foams.

That foam is one of sanger’s signatures. Kopi saring itself is valued enough to be a professional skill: in 2019, JPNN reported that the government job training centre (BLK) in Banda Aceh had made kopi saring a flagship of its barista course, because Aceh is one of Indonesia’s biggest coffee producers and its coffee culture runs deep. The head of the centre pointed out that the technique needs little money to set up.

What is kopi sanger?

Aceh’s coffee with milk, made from kopi saring. Good News From Indonesia says it looks like an ordinary kopi susu but uses less milk, and is frothed until foamy. The New Straits Times describes it as coffee “with a bit of sugar and condensed milk”.

The name has a story. Citing Banda Aceh’s tourism office, Good News From Indonesia says sanger was created by coffee sellers for customers who couldn’t afford both coffee and milk, and that the name is short for “sama-sama ngerti”, “we both understand”. It’s a popular story; other explanations for the name exist.

Where is it drunk?

In the warkop (warung kopi). “Coffee is a big thing in the city. We probably have the most coffee shops per kilometre in the world,” T. Samsuar, head of Banda Aceh’s tourism and culture department, told the New Straits Times. “Here, problems, ideas and conflicts are settled over a cup of coffee at a warkop.”

The New Straits Times adds that:

• During the conflict of the 1980s and 1990s, warkop became neutral ground where everyone could relax over coffee.
• After the 2004 tsunami, they were where international aid workers gathered, and they opened up to women customers.
• Today, with Wi-Fi, big screens and 24-hour opening, they’re where young people bring laptops.

One of the best known is Solong Coffee in Ulee Kareng, which the Jakarta Post and New Straits Times both date to 1974. Its menu includes black coffee, coffee with milk and Gayo Arabica, the Jakarta Post says.

General guidance only. Take care with hot water when pouring between pots, and go easy on the condensed milk if you’re watching sugar.

Aceh kopi saring vs other methods

• Kopi sock: Malaysia and Singapore’s cloth-filter kopi.
• Kopi tubruk: Indonesia’s unfiltered coffee, grounds and all.
• Kopi joss: Yogyakarta’s coffee with a hot coal.
• Lao sock coffee: cloth-filtered coffee over condensed milk.

Explore every cloth-filter method in the cloth-filter chapter.