Kopi Tubruk (Javanese Unfiltered Coffee)
Asian · Drink · Vegetarian
Indonesia’s everyday coffee: finely ground coffee and sugar put straight into a glass, boiling water poured over, stirred, and left a few minutes for the grounds to sink. It is sweet, thick and strong, drunk slowly so the grounds stay at the bottom. Tubruk means “collide”. It is the coffee underneath Yogyakarta’s charcoal-dropped kopi joss.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Kopi Joss page.
Ingredients
- 2 heaped teaspoons (about 10 g) very finely ground coffee, preferably a dark Indonesian robusta or robusta blend
- 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar, to taste
- 150 ml (⅔ cup) water, just off the boil
- 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk, optional
Directions
- Put the coffee and sugar in a heatproof glass, pour over the just-boiled water, stir well, and leave it for 3 to 4 minutes, until the grounds have sunk and a thin crust has formed and broken.
- Stir in condensed milk if you like it. Drink slowly, leaving the last finger of coffee and the grounds in the glass.
Notes
Where this comes from The usual Javanese method, as described in Wikipedia’s Kopi tubruk article: grounds and sugar in the glass, hot water poured over, unfiltered, grounds left to settle. The amounts are this kitchen’s starting point. Grind As fine as for a moka pot or finer; coarse grounds float and stay in the mouth. Kopi joss In Yogyakarta the Angkringan Lik Man stall drops a glowing piece of wood charcoal into a glass of this coffee. That is not given here: no one has measured what the charcoal does to the drink, and Malaysia’s Ministry of Health ruled in 2023 that charcoal is not a food. See the Kopi Joss page. The photo Kopi tubruk in a glass at a café in Jakarta.