The archive · Small Business & Money · Product decision · 1960s
Kopi Joss: a Yogyakarta stall drops burning charcoal into coffee and makes a city icon
An angkringan vendor plunged red-hot charcoal into bitter coffee in the 1960s — the hissing 'joss' drink became Yogyakarta's signature street coffee.
Angkringan Lek Man
What it had to solve
Angkringan Lek Man, a family-run angkringan (cart stall) in Yogyakarta founded by Mbah Pairo in the 1950s, served bitter brewed coffee to workers and students. In the 1960s Kobar's grandfather and father started experimenting with the brew to make it better.
How it works
Angkringan are the wooden cart stalls that anchor Yogyakarta's street life, serving small rice parcels, fried snacks and hot drinks from late afternoon into the night. The city's most famous angkringan drink is kopi joss: a cup of sweet Javanese coffee with a piece of red-hot charcoal plunged straight into it.
The drink was born at Angkringan Lek Man, a family stall founded in the 1950s by Mbah Pairo and run by relatives, including Lik Man. In the 1960s Kobar's grandfather and father began experimenting with the coffee — 'they were just experimenting; they didn't realise the coffee would become so popular,' said Kobar, who now runs the business. Dropping burning charcoal into the brew made it sizzle with a hissing 'jossss', which became the drink's name.
The recipe stayed unchanged across generations: powdered coffee, three spoonfuls of sugar, piping hot water and one lump of charcoal (two if they are small). Kobar's stall, just north of Tugu Railway Station, sold kopi joss for Rp3,000 a cup as its most popular item, with loyal customers like a 67-year-old pedicab driver who drank it daily for about three decades.
Why it lands
- The idea is cheap and immediate: a lump of charcoal transforms a bitter cup into a memorable product without new equipment or ingredients.
- The hissing sound gives the drink a name and a story, making it easy to order, photograph and talk about — free marketing for a street stall.
- Keeping the recipe unchanged across generations turned the drink into a family heirloom and a piece of local identity.
- The visible ritual (tongs, glowing coal, sizzle) turns a commodity drink into a small performance customers come back to watch.
What it did
Kopi joss became the stall's best-selling drink at Rp3,000 (about 30 US cents) a cup, kept loyal customers returning for decades, drew about five imitators along the same road, and grew into an icon of Yogyakarta that tourists now seek out.
What you can take
A visible, repeatable ritual is worth more than a recipe: the theatrical hiss of charcoal hitting coffee turned a bitter brew into a named, orderable, shareable product no menu could copy.
Since then
Kopi joss spread from Angkringan Lek Man to other angkringan across Yogyakarta — the Southeast Asia Globe profile counted about five competitors on the same road — and became a tourist attraction, with 24-hour stalls such as Angkringan Kopi Jos Pak Agus near Tugu Station. In 2023 Malaysia's health ministry ruled that serving charcoal coffee was an offence, a sign the drink had become famous enough to be debated across national borders.
Sources
- The black stuff: a fresh brew is a way of life all over the region, but in Yogyakarta, locals take their coffee with a kick of coal
- 'Angkringan', Yogyakarta's Traditional Street Food Stalls
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