where to get tea in Indonesia

Go to Wonosobo. Lots of plantations there.

Edit ... There's an excellent plantation in Sapuran, about 2.5 hours from Yogya.

Thanks to mention;  I'll take a closer look online when I get a chance.  This is really a survey trip to plan more time with our kids later so we'll see a little of a few places without much time anywhere.

In Kuta, Bali, tea is not exactly a beverage of much demand.     Basically it would be akin to going to Nana Plaza looking to have "a tea or two."   

However, in nearby Kerobokan there is the Angelita Tea Salon, and in not too far away, (Seminyak) there is Biku.  If you find that Kuta is driving you nuts and you decide to “get out of Dodge” and head up to Ubud, then Seniman would be your first choice.

There are numerous tea and coffee plantations in north central Bali which you can visit, but if you’re staying in Kuta that would involve a day trip.

I'll know soon enough, but the resort area we're staying in is nothing like Pattaya, right?  I'm not squeemish about people making a living different ways but I'm visiting with my wife,  nothing to do with that kind of night life.  I've been to enough Thai beach areas it would seem familiar if so.

Visit Rollo Tea Garden which is situated 60. Km North East of Malang, East Java,  at the foot of the Bromo. This is a tea plantation whose shop sells excellent teas.

Aside from drinking coffee, I am a tea drinker as well.
I dont know why, but I found tea from Indonesia of lower quality than I am used to commercially. And overseas they are not famous.

From my personal experience...
My favourite is green tea variety.
The strongest I have drunk is Pu er cha from China from a good stock. Kind of black reddish tea. The quality is stronger than coffee, I feel alert, fresh without the numbness of coffee.
But it is rather expensive brewing per cup/batch.

“I'll know soon enough, but the resort area we're staying in is nothing like Pattaya, right?”

Here are some links to help answer your question… 

http://www.adventurouskate.com/kuta-the … e-in-bali/http://travel-lush.com/ugly-side-balis- … -visiting/http://www.wanderingearl.com/when-touri … bly-wrong/http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/trav … 6907016586

I noted that you mentioned that you'll "know soon enough."  If that means that you are going to be here over the Christmas/New Year holiday then seriously forget about Kuta...cancel your booking and book in either Sanur, Jimbaran, Seminyak, Canggu, or best yet...Nusa Dua. 

Over the Christmas/New Year period Kuta will be an endless sea of bogans, and Pattaya will seem more like Cannes to you.  Kuta is always packed with 24/7 "Spring Break" party loving Aussies, but during school breaks, it truly becomes insane beyond measure.

We're in Yogjakarta now and will be in Bali in a few days.  I live in Bangkok and my wife is Thaiand wewe've vacationed in Pattaya and Phuket so as long as a few of the people around aren't prostitutes or lady-boys we will be fine.

I write a blog about tea, about that part,  so I'm familiar with most Chinese teas (not all, of course,  they make a lot of tea). I've had one great tea from Indonesia,  from PT Harendong, and it probably was an exception,  but there should be others. It was a black tea.  I wouldn't expect to find equivalents to many different types but I'd just like to try something new,  hopefully also good.

My wife is Balinese and I've brought her to Thailand a few times.  Almost always the locals spoke to her in Thai as the Balinese are very very similar in looks to Thais from Isan.  What your Thai wife might enjoy about Bali is what my wife most enjoyed about Thailand, that being in Thailand there is a influence of Hindu, and in Bali, there is mix of Buddhism.   While "spirit houses" abound there, including the daily ritual of offerings of incense, etc., the same is found in Bali.  There are great cultural similarities between Bali and Thailand, but you'll have to get out of Kuta...indeed out of most all of southern Bali to experience the Balinese culture.  And of course she loved Thai food!

If you Google those three places I mentioned in an earlier post you'll find information about the varieties of tea to be found here, and from local plantations.

Have a great trip! 

Cheers, Roy

Here we go.

http://agris-sari.blogspot.co.id/

Great link Fred, thanks.  It will take a little doing translating that on my phone but I have time on a train today.   One interesting change in plans relates to the volcano we planned to hike on Sunday erupting (Bromo).  It may be possible to see it from a safe distance,  or maybe more time for the tea quest.  We will stay in Melang for two nights, then on to Banyuwangi to see Ijen, another volcano.

Sapuran has two volcanoes, with a mud volcano in Dieng not too far away.
You can go right up to the hole on that one, giving a very nice view of the red hot, spitting mud inside it.

This place looks like a workable option too, the Wonosari plantation 30 km north of Melang.  There's not really much out there for contacts, even in related discussion threads or places like trip advisor (this is a blog post):

http://www.michaelsaf.com/2015/09/07/th … in-malang/

I found out you can go to Pananjakan mountain to see Bromo erupt, because I did it.  It was amazing.  It makes you wonder what a worst case eruption would be like from there, how safe, but it must have been at least 15 miles / 20 kilometers away,  probably a bit further.

We did visit Wonosari plantation too, but not for long since we woke up at midnight that day to see the sunrise on that mountain.  I've not tried the tea yet, which was one of the main points, so that's part of how successful that visit was. It would have been great to take a tour and hear about processing,  which they seemed to do, but funny how all but missing a night's sleep changes the context.

I didn't find any other nice shops in Yogjakarta or Malang, but again I didn't put lots of time in, so we would have needed to walk right by a place Google Maps knew about.  Google never heard of a Rollo plantation near Bromo,  nor did Trip Advisor or Lonely Planet, or our guide, so it just wasn't an option.

Bogor tea plantations provide tea for Yellow Lable tea and around Bandung for Sari Wangi. Local tea plantations is probably best found by asking someone in traditional markets or Indonesian grocery stores like Rezeka which is more traditional.

I just got back from Indonesia yesterday, back in Bangkok, so it seems a good time for an update.  I'd already mentioned we visited Wonosari plantation, in Lawang outisde Malang, and I've not got around to trying those teas yet, so nothing to add about that.

I found tea from Java in Bali as well, in a Rollas shop there.  That seems to be a government-involved agency that makes tea and runs cafes to sell tea and coffee (see http://rollaas.co.id/company-profiles/).  I didn't try that tea either, so I won't have much update about Indonesian teas just yet.

About Kuta seeming like Pattaya or Phuket, I get the connection to it being an urban resort but there is no close parallel related to an obvious sex industry.  Others may contest that based on their own impression, but I'd remain convinced they're just wrong.  Pattaya seems to be inhabited by mostly prostitutes and transvestites (and Russian mafia--a different story), based on exposure in staying in places where it's not as common.  I'm sure there was some red-light area there but I didn't see one woman I thought was probably a prostitute, and in Phuket you couldn't miss them either.

All the same it does seem a mistake to spend any time at all in Kuta.  We did a day-long temple tour from there one day, and went to Nusa Dua for another, so we didn't hang around there much.  It did work for shopping since somehow we overkill the souvenir aspect, and some Christmas toy shopping worked out better than in Thailand.

I've tried really exceptional black tea before from Indonesia, from Harendong farm, but it's likely I didn't buy any that interesting.  I did get two silver needle (white) teas, and those might be really nice, but I like black teas and oolongs better in general, and there was at least potential related to the former.

I wrote a blog post about looking for tea there, but this really mostly just covers what I already said.  My blog is about tea, so the focus is on that, but I drifted more towards pictures of temples and volcanoes in it, which would be standard fare for Indonesian expats, just ordinary things I guess.  It does include more links, so that if the places I've discussed are of interest it would be easy to look up more information about them there:

teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2015/12/tea-in-indonesia-one-vacations-worth-of.html

Thanks for the update - I'll have a read at the blog later, and I suspect a good few others will do the same.

Just did a speed read job on the blog.

I recommend posters click the link.

Good blog, BKK, nicely done!

"About Kuta seeming like Pattaya or Phuket, I get the connection to it being an urban resort but there is no close parallel related to an obvious sex industry.  Others may contest that based on their own impression, but I'd remain convinced they're just wrong."

Here's a preview of what you missed...and how you could miss it if you were on Jalan Legian in Kuta at night is hard for me to imagine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkWEzVZkp5A

Thanks about the feedback about the blog post.

About the sex industry there in Kuta, I thought I was clear that I didn't visit a red light district.   But most of Pattaya is essentially that,  and you can't easily avoid it in Phuket.  If you seek it out there is such a place in Singapore,  Gelang I think it is,  but Singapore is nothing like Pattaya, essentially the opposite.  Maybe the context of the prior discussion wasn't clear.

There is no "red light" district in Kuta per se.  Most of the entire length of Jalan Legian, the main road in Kuta, is essentially all a red light district with one club after another.  It would be near impossible to walk Jalan Legian at night and not see working girls...both in and out of the clubs.

I stayed in the Kuta Square section, and walked in that area, and some on the beachside road, and saw none of that, not a single woman that seemed to be working. Maybe Kuta is all about prostitution and I somehow stayed where it doesn't happen; it is conceivable.  This part might sound crazy to some but I also don't drink much alcohol and don't frequent bars.

bkk tea blog wrote:

This part might sound crazy to some but I also don't drink much alcohol and don't frequent bars.

Not even slightly crazy, gogargoogargooloogiggygoo (That's Martian for "My underwear on on backwards") , but it does explain why you didn't see the seedy side of life there.

I have yet to visit Bali, but every other major Asian tourist place I've ever been has a massive prostitute problem/industry in the tourist bar areas. Not exclusively in those areas, but it's always there as well.

Not drinking booze nor wishing to catch AIDS, I don't go to places like that or use such services, but a lot seems to enjoy that sort of thing.
It will always thrive when people with a lot of money but little clue spend a week in paradise, commonly  followed by a month under a doctor for a nasty rash.

This thread kind of drifted into how much of an issue prostitution is in Bali, but per a separate online discussion I think I've got a better idea how tea plantations go in Indonesia.  Just bear in mind I'm working from what people tell me in passing online, so it couldn't be 100% right, but then what ever is.

The few plantations in the West of Java seem to mostly be government ran farms (not sure why that would be).  I bought tea from Rollas, a government related agency, that also owns tea shops, and they sell it from multiple plantations in West Java.  I can't say the tea is better or worse than from elsewhere but my impression based on trying only one (from Wonosari, not the one I bought from the Rollas shop) is that the green tea is good but not great.  That said the tea I tried was obviously hand processed, not machine processed CTC tea, so I meant it's not quite on the same level as more expensive Chinese teas, or related quality-level teas I've tried from many countries, including Indonesia. 

The two white teas I bought almost have to be intended as a specialty-tea type product; they're silver-needle style teas, just the buds, not so easy to harvest that way.  And per my understanding there is less critical reliance on getting processing steps right, since white teas are the least processed.

According to that contact, who works in the tea industry, Rollas has three plantations: Wonosari (so they are related to the tea I bought, per him), Sirah Kengcong, and Kamar Tengah.  He didn't say private tea garden teas would necessarily be better in general but did say they would vary, and some might have much better versions than others.  Other input was that a good place to try is around Wonosobo, in central Java, and I've read of someone visiting another plantation in the West of Java (article link following).  Others mentioned tea production in Sumatra as well, but the whole point was finding better teas, and it will take more research and hopefully tasting to evaluate sources for really nice teas.


I've tried great tea from this plantation, previously:

http://www.harendong.com/

an article about a Wonosobe plantation:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008 … p-tea.html

an article about a visit to a West Java plantation:

http://chariteas.blogspot.com/2015/10/a … story.html

I drove past a major plantation in Wonosobo last night.
Too late to take photos, but I managed a few snaps of a nasty motorbike crash.