UI develops nutritious caffeine-free and gluten-free job's tears seed coffee
The University of Indonesia (UI) is committed to boosting the Indonesian community’s economy by developing coffee made from job’s tears seeds that is both caffeine-free and gluten-free.
The Community Service Team from the UI Faculty of Pharmacy (FFUI) is partnering with farming communities, SMEs, and the residents of the Hanjeli Tourism Village in Sukabumi Regency, West Java, to process job’s tears seeds into a nutritious beverage with a natural coffee flavour.
Prof. Dr. apt. Berna Elya, leader of the FFUI Community Service Team, stated in Depok, West Java, on Friday, that this collaborative programme to increase commodity value is being conducted using a ‘living lab’ approach. The programme is expected to elevate job’s tears seeds as a high-value food product with the potential to become a leading regional commodity.
Prof. Berna, who leads the programme titled “Bestari Saintek”, explained that the development of the job’s tears commodity is a realisation of laboratory research findings intended for practical use by the community. “Job’s tears, or jali, is a local plant with immense potential to be processed into healthy food products. Through this community service, we want to bring laboratory research directly to the people by processing these seeds into a beverage that tastes like natural coffee, is nutritious, and is safe for those with caffeine or gluten intolerances,” she explained.
The development process for the beverage is being carried out in stages, ranging from seed characterisation, experiments with roasting and grinding techniques, and prototype formulation, to ensuring the quality is safe for consumption and free from gluten and caffeine.
Once the base product is established, the FFUI team will proceed with post-harvest training for farmers and SMEs, marketing trials in the Hanjeli Tourism Village, and the preparation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to standardise production. The assistance also covers business models and branding strategies to ensure the product is ready to be marketed as a high-value-added beverage.
Prof. Berna added that beyond merely formulating the product, her team is also training farmers and SMEs to be self-sufficient in processing job’s tears seeds using easy-to-learn technology. The hope is that this innovation will increase local incomes while establishing job’s tears coffee as a proud souvenir product of Sukabumi.