StoryEst. Yogyakarta 2021
Fordo started as a research problem: why does the same coffee taste different from one batch to the next? Five years and thirty partner cafes later, we’re still working on the same question — and roasting in a way that shows the answer in the cup.
Kristofan Hartono · FounderOrigin story
5-min read
“The same coffee shouldn’t taste different every time you order it. We built Fordo to close that gap.”
Before Fordo, we drank a lot of coffee: bags from other roasteries, our own test batches, whatever the cafes we visited were pouring. The same thing kept showing up: the same bean, roasted a month apart, rarely tasted the same. That’s the problem we set out to fix.
Fordo Coffee Lab is a roastery run like a lab. Every batch gets measured, logged, and cupped, and the roast profile gets adjusted from that data — not from memory or gut feel. That’s what keeps the cup the same from one order to the next.
Buying green beans directly from farmers, learning their processes, and meeting many processors made one thing clear: farmer welfare has to improve too. So we stopped working only one end of the chain.
Roasting and shipping to cafes is now only half the work. Upstream, we work with growers across Indonesia — standardizing processing, subsidizing tools, and building supply relationships that pay for quality, not just volume.
The plan from here is simple: the same work, with more farmers. Indonesian coffee gets better when the people who grow it get paid to make it better.
Mission · Three commitments
Downstream & upstream
01 · Downstream
Every batch measured on the Giesen W6A. Every roast profile documented and repeatable. Every lot cupped before it ships. That’s how the same shot pulls the same way, month after month.
Calibrated production · batch traceability
02 · Upstream
Direct trade with growers across six regions. We standardize processing, subsidize tools, and pay for quality. If quality doesn’t pay, this supply is gone in 10 years.
Gayo · Java · Bali · Timor Leste · +2
03 · Middle
We host public cupping the first Saturday of every month. Cafes are welcome to bring lots to profile with us. The lab’s job is to translate what grew well into what tastes good — in your cup.
Public cupping · every 1st Saturday
Timeline · 2021 → 2026
Still going
Kristofan starts the research problem: cupping, cataloguing, and studying how to make roast profiles repeatable.
Fordo starts supplying specialty cafes across Yogyakarta. First wholesale contracts. Giesen W6A comes online.
First podium finishes at Jogja Coffee Week #4 and Borobudur Cup. Cup-taster titles for two team members.
Second place at Jakarta Coffee Week Nordic Roasting Challenge. First place at JCW #5 Barista Innovation.
Second roastery opens in Sentolo, Kulonprogo. Output at 15 tons/month. Wholesale program formalized.
On the ground · Jogja Coffee Week #5
5–7 Sept 2025 · JEC
Three days at Jogja Coffee Week #5 — the event where we took first at the Barista Innovation Challenge for the Coffee & Tea Yogyakarta segment. The booth ran continuous brews and short-cup pours from our origin lineup. If you missed us there, the public cupping on the first Saturday at the Magelang lab is the next place to catch us.
1st place · Barista Innovation Challenge
Watch
YouTube · 5:12
Recognition
Roasting · Cup tasting · Barista · Innovation
Sister brand · EspressoClub.
Kaliurang st. km 5.1 · Yogyakarta
Fordo Coffee Lab is the roastery. EspressoClub is the espresso bar where the same coffee gets pulled — open 24 hours a day on Kaliurang Street, km 5.1. The lab side is where we develop; the bar side is where we prove.
Visit · 24/7
Visit or reach us
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Public cupping every first Saturday. Bring a lot. Bring a friend.
Follow @fordocoffee