I don’t know why but Yellow Truck Coffee likes to position their coffee shops rather unseen and on one-way streets. Last time, I had to venture first to the farthest end of Jalan Pajajaran in Bandung only to realize that they’re hidden on the first one-third of this long street. Just recently, its latest outlet in Jakarta was built upon the same ‘principle’ and I have to make a turnaround just to get through the highly busy Hang Tuah street. Even so, all the trouble was just paid instantly and it was all worth the while.

No matter what, venturing around just to find these hidden babies is something that I have been doing even before the inception of this blog. Apparently, not only elves that have keen eyes but all of us could, if we have the right amount of passion just to scour around the neighborhood only to find even the tastiest among hawkers that sell ketoprak or nasi uduk. It works great for coffee shops as well.

Yellow Truck is pretty much similar like Anomali. I don’t know whether they have established more than just direct buying from local coffee farmers, but one thing for sure, they both roast and brew the coffee in the same place. While the aspects on how to cultivate, roast, and brew coffee are still generally alien for me but it’s nice to drop by here and learn more about the mystery.

Beans and La Marzocco machines are all over the place in Yellow Truck. If you’re lucky, they might welcome you with the good smell from roasting process coming out from the chimney. If you also happen to see it during busy hours, you’ll feel the spirit coming out from people behind the machines sharing their thoughts about coffee, experimenting with new beans, and also serving people at the same time. So if you find yourself rather neglected, please don’t hesitate to give it a shout and have them serve you with the best of their abilities because Yellow Truck is more like a school, showroom, and a lab instead as a coffee shop.

One time, I had my Malabar 2000 beans brewed by using Aeropress by one of the students of Yellow Truck back in Bandung. Yes, this particular coffee shop also opens classes for people who want to know how to deal with these delicate darlings. By the way, it was named Malabar 2,000 because the beans were cultivated on the hills of Mount Malabar in West Java at 2,000 m above the sea level. The coffee was supposed to have a spicy characteristic but please forgive my undeveloped palate for my inability to identify that particular trait.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, I was having a great time interacting with a visiting expert roaster from Australia, Mr Aidan Broderick. He explained a lot to me on what he’s trying to achieve by roasting coffee beans through the humongous Diedrich machine from start to finish. By the way, I never thought that the roasting process could produce a fragrant that reminds me of the hampers that my aunt usually bakes every Lebaran time. Very inviting!

Although it started as a quiet time for me at Yellow Truck Jakarta while sipping a cup of good Americano, my visit eventually ended up with a great story about coffee! From the Diedrich, next Aidan gave me a good lesson on the importance to immerse yourself fully in serving the best coffee. He emphasized the importance on how to create the best espresso while also ensuring the quality of the steamed milk without having to put too many hands involvements into it. As we all may aware, coffee shops in Australia can sell thousands of cups every day and you don’t want to ruin your tempo. As for the result, he indeed created one helluva steamed milk – perfect, frothy, and delicious. Not to mention about the balance he put between these two and the texture that came from a good cappuccino.

Not long after Aidan left, Aji came in and we reminded each other that we had first met during a good discussion about his visit to La Marzocco coffee machine factory back in Italy at Noah’s Barn Bandung. He later asked me to accompany him for a cupping session by using foreign coffee beans currently available there. Since it’s the first time for me, I found the session very enlightening and we engaged ourselves in a cool, geeky convo about coffee and everything.

Before I left, Aji complimented me with a bottle of cold brew coffee of Yellow Truck brand and it’s a courtesy of his own brew. I will later let you know about how it tastes in another post. It’s gonna be exciting for sure!

So, though it all started as a quiet afternoon for me apparently turned out to be a fantastic experience after all. I have finally found a safe haven to learn much about coffee and even perhaps one day I may enroll myself for an espresso class here! As for you who only prefer to enjoy the coffee only, again I must bid you not to hesitate let the staff know and ask about anything you want to know about the drink, about Yellow Truck exciting beans, and even the machines!

—–

YELLOW TRUCK COFFEE & TEA CO.

Halal-friendly

Some menu suitable for vegetarians

Address:
Jalan Pajajaran no. 6A, Bandung – Indonesia

Opening hours: Everyday, TBA

Twitter: @YellowTruckCafe

Spend: IDR 25,000 – IDR 50,000 / person

—–

Bandung