Lombok Coffee | Where It’s Grown, How Locals Drink It, and Choosing It as a Souvenir

4 October 2026

“I’d like to take some Lombok coffee home, but should I buy ground coffee or beans?” “How do locals actually drink that fine powder?” “Is there anything to watch out for when I take it home?” Many people have questions like these before buying coffee on Lombok. The short answer: Lombok’s coffee is grown on the slopes of Mount Rinjani, with Robusta in North Lombok Regency on the north side and Arabica in Sembalun on the north-east side. Locally, the usual way to drink it is to pour hot water over finely ground coffee and sip from the top once the grounds settle, and most coffee sold as a souvenir is ground rather than whole bean.

This article is based on Indonesian news reports, other published information, and a video in which our team visited a coffee farmer in the north of Lombok. There is little public information on output per farm or prices per shop, and wherever we could not confirm something, we say so.

This article focuses on coffee only: where it is grown, which varieties, how to drink it, how to buy it and what to check before taking it home.

It is written for travellers thinking of coffee as a Lombok souvenir, anyone who wants to try local coffee while they are here, and anyone wondering how Indonesian-style ground coffee is meant to be drunk.

Information as of September 2026

What you’ll learn in this article

✓Lombok’s main coffee-growing areas (Robusta in North Lombok, Arabica in Sembalun)
✓Rempek, a coffee village in North Lombok, and what a farm looks like at harvest time
✓How to make kopi tubruk, the local way of pouring hot water over ground coffee
✓Ground or whole bean as a souvenir, and what to look for on price tags and packets
✓Roasted versus green (unroasted) beans when you take coffee home

THE SHORT ANSWER

As of September 2026, Lombok’s coffee comes mainly from the slopes of Mount Rinjani. Robusta is grown in Gangga district, North Lombok Regency (in villages such as Rempek), and Arabica in Sembalun, East Lombok Regency. Locally, people skip the filter: they put fine grounds in a cup, pour on hot water and drink from the top once the grounds have sunk. This is called kopi tubruk, and most souvenir coffee is sold ground. If you plan to take coffee home, roasted beans or ground coffee are the simpler choice; import rules for green (unroasted) beans depend on the country you are going to.

TOC

Where is Lombok coffee grown? Areas and varieties

In the north of Lombok stands Mount Rinjani, 3,726 m high and the tallest mountain in West Nusa Tenggara province. Coffee is grown mainly on its slopes. In a video on our team’s YouTube channel (published August 2026), Hiroki Nakamura, who runs a business in Sekotong, says that coffee and cacao are grown high on Mount Rinjani, where there are vast plantations, yet the coffee is barely known in Japan.

By variety, Robusta dominates in North Lombok Regency on the north side of the mountain. Local media outlet Inside Lombok reported in March 2020 that Robusta grown by farmers in Gangga district had been exported to South Korea since 2017, 20 tonnes in total, and that in 2020 a further contract for 100 tonnes was signed with the Korean buyer. North Lombok’s Robusta is going through the application for Geographical Indication status (a system that protects place-of-origin names) as “Kopi Robusta Rinjani”. In July 2026, the Directorate General of Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Law and the provincial office carried out an on-site assessment. According to reports, the growing area covered is about 221 hectares, with around 200 producers involved. Of the 10 growing zones tested for quality, 7 fell into the highest quality grade. Reports from the same month said the application was still in progress towards the issuing of the certificate.

Arabica, on the other hand, is grown in Sembalun, East Lombok Regency. Sembalun sits at the north-eastern foot of Mount Rinjani and is also known as one of the trailheads for the climb. According to a 2018 article from the state news agency Antara, Sembalun’s Arabica farms lie at 1,300–1,600 m, partly within Mount Rinjani National Park. The trees were originally planted by residents in 1962 under an agricultural credit programme. The article describes the taste as strongly acidic and notes that it is still little known compared with coffees such as Java or Toraja.

Figure: Lombok’s main coffee-growing areas and varieties

Diagram based on the section “Where is Lombok coffee grown?”

In the same August 2026 video, a Japanese-language teacher who lives on Lombok and appears alongside Mr Nakamura notes that the Indonesian coffees well known in Japan are the likes of kopi luwak, Toraja and Bali, and that Lombok coffee tends to be lumped together as simply “Indonesian”. If you want to know the growing area or variety, the label on the packet is the most reliable guide (we explain what to look for further down).

Where is Rempek? Harvest season and life on the farm

Rempek is a village in Gangga district, North Lombok Regency. In January 2024 the local newspaper Lombok Post featured coffee from Rempek village in Gangga district as “Kopi Robusta Rempek”. The exports to South Korea mentioned above were also Robusta from farmers in Rempek. Gangga district also has a village with a similar name, Rempek Darussalam, where in November 2024 a partnership with a university brought in a solar dryer and a hulling machine to improve coffee quality, according to reports.

In the video on our team’s YouTube channel (published August 2026), Mr Nakamura says that Robusta is grown in the north of the island. At the farm they visited, the harvest runs for about a month from the end of July, because the fields are so large that picking takes around a month (at about 19:16). Around 20 people pick about 3 tonnes of cherries a day; women pick alongside the men, and children gather the cherries that fall on the ground (at about 9:25). This farm harvests roughly 90 tonnes in a month, they said (at about 17:10). This is one farm’s account, and we could not confirm it as the harvest season or output for the area as a whole.

In the video, they describe freshly picked cherries as having a large seed and little flesh, but a faint sweetness. Getting to the farm took about an hour by car from Mataram, about another hour to the coffee-selling area in Rempek, and then about an hour by motorbike along a mountain track that cars cannot use (at about 8:29). We could not confirm whether farm tours for visitors are run on a regular basis.

How do locals drink it? Kopi tubruk, hot water poured over grounds

In the video on our team’s YouTube channel (published August 2026), the Japanese-language teacher living on Lombok and Mr Nakamura explain the local way of drinking coffee on Lombok: no filter, just spoon the grounds into a cup, pour on hot water, stir, and add sugar if you like.

In Indonesia this method is called kopi tubruk. Hot water is poured over finely ground coffee and nothing is filtered out, so the used grounds collect at the bottom of the cup. Sugar is often added, and these days some people add condensed milk too. A guide from Indonesian coffee retailer Otten Coffee suggests water at 92–96°C and a coffee-to-water ratio of about 1:10 to 1:12, and recommends waiting for the grounds to sink on their own. To try it yourself, follow these steps.

Spoon finely ground coffee into a cup (no filter)
Pour on water just off the boil and stir well
Add sugar if you like
Wait for the grounds to sink to the bottom, then drink from the top. Leave the grounds in the cup

Figure: How to make kopi tubruk, the local way

Diagram based on the section “How do locals drink it?”

The thing to watch is how fine the grounds are. Mr Nakamura says that the ground coffee he drank at a souvenir shop felt gritty and odd, whereas the grounds at the farm they visited were very fine and easy to drink as they were. If you are not used to drinking coffee with the grounds in, you can wait a little longer for them to settle, or once you are home, strain it through a paper filter or a tea strainer.

How do families on Lombok make their coffee?

In the same video, the Japanese-language teacher living on Lombok explains that on Lombok many families roast the coffee they drink at home themselves. Her mother-in-law roasts at home too; each household has its own favourite beans and flavour, and many add spices during roasting.

Just as some families add spices, the aroma and flavour of Lombok coffee vary from one maker to another. If you don’t like spiced coffee, check the product name and the ingredients list before you buy to make sure nothing other than coffee has been added. The Indonesian word for ginger is “jahe”.

Ground or whole bean: which should I buy as a souvenir?

In a video on our team’s YouTube channel (published December 2025), Mr Nakamura and local staff say that Lombok coffee is the classic Lombok souvenir. In a souvenir-shop scene in the same video, Mr Nakamura explains that Lombok coffee is mostly sold ground: you just add hot water, the grounds sink, and you drink from the top. Beans are available too, but ground coffee is the norm, and because it is inexpensive it makes a handy gift to hand out.

The deciding factor is how you will brew it at home. If you want to try the local way of pouring hot water straight into the cup, ground coffee is the easy option. Bear in mind, though, that grind size varies from product to product, and coarser grounds sink slowly in the cup and can leave a gritty texture. If you prefer pour-over or like to choose your own grind, buying whole beans and grinding them at home is more practical.

On the packet, these points make choosing easier. The variety may be written as “Robusta” or “Arabika”, and the growing area as a place name such as “Lombok Utara” (North Lombok), “Rempek” or “Sembalun”. In Indonesian, ground coffee is “bubuk” and beans are “biji”. Unroasted green beans are treated differently when you take them home, so check whether the coffee has been roasted.

It also helps to know how to read price tags. In the same December 2025 video, Mr Nakamura explains that “K” on a price tag stands for three zeros, so 59K means Rp59,000 (about US$3.30, based on US$1 ≈ Rp17,800 as of September 2026). For cash and exchanging money, see our guide to money and payments on Lombok. If you’d like to drink coffee at a café while you’re here, our article on Lombok’s cafés and Wi-Fi covers how to choose one.

Can I take it home? Roasted versus green beans

What matters most when taking coffee home is whether it has been roasted. The ground coffee commonly sold in souvenir shops has been roasted and then ground. Green (unroasted) beans, which have only been dried and not heat-processed, are more likely to be subject to plant inspection on arrival, and items with soil on them are generally refused.

Rules on bringing coffee in, and duty-free allowances, differ from country to country. If you plan to buy green beans, or a large quantity of coffee, check the rules of the country you are flying to before you buy.

A word from Sekotong

Sekotong is not an area lined with big souvenir shops. If you want to take coffee home, decide early in your trip which day you will stop at shops in town, such as in Mataram, so you are not rushing just before you leave. Grind size varies a lot between ground coffees, so if a shop lets you taste, try a cup before you choose. If you are buying several packets, pick one Robusta and one Arabica so you can compare them at home.

Who is Lombok coffee for? The drawbacks first

To be honest, if you expect souvenir coffee from Lombok to come with the detailed notes you would get on beans from a specialty coffee roaster, you may be disappointed. You can’t always confirm the village of origin or the roast date from the packet, and as the video shows, grind size varies from product to product.

Also, the Robusta grown in North Lombok is generally considered a variety with less acidity and more bitterness than Arabica, and less of a fruity aroma. If you like a clean, bright coffee, Robusta grounds may not be for you; in that case, look for Arabica from places such as Sembalun. And if you simply don’t like drinking coffee with the grounds left in the cup, ground coffee won’t suit you either.

It suits people who like a strong, bitter coffee, those who want to try coffee exactly the way local families drink it, and anyone looking for light, affordable gifts to hand out. Roasted coffee is also easy to take home, which makes it a convenient souvenir to buy at the end of your trip.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Can I brew Lombok ground coffee in a pour-over dripper?

Yes. But grind size varies between products, and very fine grounds can make the water drain slowly. If you want to use a dripper, it is easier to buy whole beans and grind them to your liking at home.

Q. Can I take green (unroasted) coffee beans home?

It depends on the country you are going to. Green beans are more likely to be inspected than roasted coffee, and items with soil on them are generally refused. Check the rules of your destination country before you buy. Roasted beans or ground coffee are the simpler choice.

Q. Is Lombok coffee Robusta or Arabica?

Both. Robusta is grown in Gangga district, North Lombok Regency (in villages such as Rempek), and Arabica in Sembalun, East Lombok Regency. You can tell which one you have from “Robusta” or “Arabika” on the packet.

Q. When is the coffee harvest?

At the North Lombok farm our team visited, the harvest ran for about a month from the end of July. We could not find official information on the harvest season for Lombok as a whole or for each variety.

Q. Can I visit a coffee farm?

We could not confirm whether farm tours for visitors are run on a regular basis. The farm our team visited was in the mountains, about two hours by car from Mataram and then about another hour by motorbike. If you’d like to visit, ask a local guide or your accommodation in advance.

Summary

Lombok’s coffee comes mainly from the slopes of Mount Rinjani. Robusta is grown in Gangga district, North Lombok Regency (in villages such as Rempek); it has been exported to South Korea, and it is going through the Geographical Indication process as “Kopi Robusta Rinjani”. On the north-east side, in Sembalun, Arabica is grown at 1,300–1,600 m.

The local way to drink it is kopi tubruk: put fine grounds in a cup, pour on hot water and drink from the top once the grounds have sunk. Most souvenir coffee is sold ground, but if you want to use a dripper, whole beans are easier to work with.

If you are taking coffee home, roasted beans or ground coffee are the simpler choice; rules for green beans depend on your destination country. At the end of this article you’ll find a video of our team visiting a coffee farmer in the north.

Watch the video | Searching for coffee to bring to Japan, deep in Lombok’s interior

The episode in which we went deep into Lombok’s jungle looking for coffee to bring to Japan (from our team’s YouTube channel “Building a town in Lombok”, in Japanese)