What is Kopi Labu?

Kopi Labu is a Sumatran term - translating roughly as "pumpkin coffee" in Bahasa Indonesia - used to describe green beans at the swollen, high-moisture stage immediately after wet-hulling. When parchment is stripped from coffee before it's fully dried, the exposed bean is soft, pale, and visibly swollen from the moisture still held inside. That pumpkin-like appearance is where the name comes from.

At Kopi Labu stage, the bean typically has 35–40% moisture - far above the 11–12% needed for export. It then goes back to drying to reach the target level.

Understanding Kopi Labu helps explain why Sumatran coffees look and taste the way they do. The cellular disruption of hulling at high moisture, followed by a second drying phase, fundamentally alters the bean's structure - producing the dark opal-green colour, irregular surface, and porous texture that characterises Giling Basah coffee, and the earthy, full-bodied, low-acid cup that follows.