The ABCD School of Coffee was started in 2013 in Jakarta's Pasar Santa by Ve Handojo and Hendri Kurniawan. It is a unique coffee school and bar that has no fixed prices or hours. Students can learn how to craft specialty coffee drinks and pay what they want for coffee. The school's popularity helped transform Pasar Santa into a hub for coffee with over 20 stalls now operating there. Ve and Hendri aim to educate students about coffee and help fill the need for qualified baristas in Indonesia's growing coffee scene.

1. 74 | FORBES INDONESIA MAY 2015
ABCD COFFEE
FORBES LIFE
THE ABCD SCHOOL OF COFFEE
was started in January 2013 by Ve
Handojo and Hendri Kurniawan
in the now-trendy Pasar Santa in
Jakarta. Back then, the second floor
of Pasar Santa was an empty place,
with only three tenants, so ABCD
was a pioneer tenant there. The pair
eventually invested about Rp 150
million over the course of six months
to get it up and running, and they co-
own the place.
ABCD stands for “a bunch of caf-
feine dealers,” and these words are
emblazoned along the top of the pair’s
Pasar Santa stall. With its exposed
brick, natural wood panelling, hand-
written signs and fancy coffee equip-
ment, it looks like just another trendy
coffee bar. However, it’s not—the place
is actually a school, where wannabe
baristas can learn how to craft drinks
like flat whites and macchiatos. Even
more unusual, ABCD has no fixed
opening or closing hours, and has no
fixed price for its coffee—“customers”
can donate whatever they want into a
red jar on the counter.
Pasar Santa became its current success due
to in no small measure to the popularity
of ABCD. The pair started attracting large
groups to the stall, and some of them
went on to open their own places nearby
on the same floor. Today more than 20
stalls operate on the floor. The pair is also
planning to expand ABCD and have hired
two full-time staff to help them. Ve had
talks with Bambang Sugiarto, the head
of the pasar’s management. “I spoke to
Bambang and asked, ‘why don’t you make
this pasar alive?’,” he says. American Josh
Estey, owns and runs a cold pressed coffee
stall in the pasar, Bear & Co, and says the
pair helped him. “When I was opening the
store I used a lot of Hendri’s knowledge,”
he says. Ironically, Pasar Santa’s growing
Santa’s Helper
ABCD’s Hendri
Kurniawan and Ve
Handojo have created a
unique coffee school.
BY JAMES HALL
The ABCDs
of Coffee
popularity could hurt it, as rents—that used
to be an affordable Rp 3 million a year—
may be on the rise, making it harder for
smaller vendors to survive.
FROM LEFT: Ve Handojo
and Hendri Kurniawan.

2. MAY 2015 FORBES INDONESIA | 75
ABCD stands
for “a bunch of
caffeine dealers.”
completed his architectural training
in 1998 but due the Asian financial
crisis at the time, found it tough
to get work. “There wasn’t much
construction then,” he says. So he
moved to Sydney where he lived for
two years and became a barista. He
decided to become a serious coffee
specialist, and eventually he became a
certified world barista championship
judge. To pay the bills, he was also a
professional coffee consultant. His
affectionate nickname is “Phat Uncle
Hendri.”
To launch ABCD, Ve spent zero
on PR, advertising and marketing. In-
stead, he smartly tapped into Indone-
sia’s passion for social media, starting
an Instagram account to market its
opening. As ABCD developed a buzz,
it got more free publicity from tradi-
tional media coverage.
Ve manages the place and organiz-
es the classes while Hendri does the
teaching. The two try to follow Hen-
dri’s philosophy. “Hendri believes cof-
fee unites us but business can tear us
apart,” says Ve. Hendri also continues
to do consulting for those wanting to
set up coffee shops.
They regularly run charity brews
and have even set up a scholarship last
December for four young adults to
receive barista training every month
from SOS Children’s Village, an NGO
that supports orphaned and aban-
doned children. The goal is to give
them marketable barista skills so they
can work in the coffee industry.
Last October they also sold coffee
from Lombok, with the money raised
going back to the villagers that pro-
duced it. “We don’t want people to
come out of here knowing only how to
operate a machine. We want them to
actually understand what is brewing.
What is coffee? What is happening
when coffee meets water?” asks Ve. F
The place also doesn’t have a fixed
supply of coffee beans—the pair bring
their own, or get donations. The pair
brews whatever beans they happen
to have, and when those run out, they
close. Last August, they had a chance
to brew some Gensha beans from
Panama, considered to be one of the
best coffees in the world, rivalling
even the legendary Kopi Luwak from
Indonesia. (For this coffee, the pair
set a price of Rp 65,000 a cup.) ABCD
also doesn’t serve food, although
ironically food is often available,
sometimes supplied by neighbouring
stalls, and sometimes Hendri brings
homemade pizza.
While the students do pay for
classes, there are no grades. The pair
offers four types of classes, ranging in
price from Rp 500,000 to Rp 5 mil-
lion, depending on the size, length
and focus of the teaching. The four
types are cleverly named the A, B, C
and D classes. As the pair put on a
blog: “As our name implies, we have
classes from A to D. A refers to Ap-
preciation class, where students learn
about the types of coffee beans, their
characteristics and history. B refers to
Brewing class, where students learn
the art of manual brewing. C is for
Cupping class, where we train stu-
dents to evaluate coffee quality….The
last class is D as in Definitive Espres-
so class, where students learn how to
make an espresso. Our modules are
patterned after the Specialty Coffee
Association of Europe and the Spe-
cialty Coffee Association of America.”
Class sizes runs from four to eight
students. Students mostly come from
Indonesia but some also came from
Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore.
The students vary—some are just
coffee lovers but others are there for
professional training, such as staff
or owners of coffee shops. The pair
note with more coffee bars springing
up than baristas to man them, ABCD
is meant to help fill the gap for
qualified staff.
The pair sells coffeemaking
equipment as well. The two came up
with the idea for ABCD from a love
of coffee. “We would just have fun
and chit-chat until late at night,” says
Ve, 39, who is a writer. Hendri, 40,
AHMADZAMRONI/FORBESINDONESIA