Kawa Daun

Kahwa daun comes from the Minangkabau highlands of West Sumatra. Makers use mature Robusta leaf, often from old trees and from pruning, picked in the morning. It is served in coconut-shell cups on bamboo stands and kept in a bamboo tube.

Larger makers clamp leafy branches between bamboo sticks and smoke them in a closed furnace over cinnamon or other wood, 60 to 100 cm from the fire, for about 45 minutes to 2 hours. One maker toasts them close over an open fire, preferably cinnamon. The oldest way dries skewered leaf over the kitchen fire for more than two weeks.

100 kg of fresh leaf gave 10 to 20 kg of kahwa daun. Leaf held close to the flame is likely to carry more smoke compounds (PAHs), so keep it well above the fire.

The study describes how the leaf is made, not how long it is brewed, and names brewing as a subject for further research. Note what you do.

Novita, Kasim, Anggraini and Putra, Kahwa daun: traditional knowledge of a coffee leaf herbal tea from West Sumatera, Indonesia, Journal of Ethnic Foods 5 (2018) 286 to 291.