Founded in 2013, Tanamera Coffee’s mission is to bring Indonesian specialty coffee to the world stage. Spanning retail, export, and B2B supply, the company’s diversified operation is built on direct farmer relationships and a “crop-to-cup” ethos that protects quality at every stage. 

Indonesian coffee is renowned for its depth and character; full-bodied, complex, and often smooth and fruit-forward. Tanamera’s master roasters develop each coffee to highlight natural sweetness, structure, and balance. “We have full control, from coffee cherry processing through to roasting,” says Founder Dini Aryani Criddle. 

The company incorporates a café and events division and a dedicated B2B arm; the latter serves over 500 clients across 1,000 outlets, including Hyatt, Four Seasons, and Marriott Bonvoy. On the retail side, the group plans to continue opening more outlets. 

Grower partnerships support producers through funding, training, and on-farm processing – strengthening community wellbeing. By managing each stage, Tanamera delivers consistent quality that has earned international recognition and fueled expansion – creating opportunities for like-minded investors. 

Read selected extracts from the interview below. 

Q: What has held the country back from translating its reputation as one of the world’s most recognizable coffee origins into stronger international visibility?

Ian Criddle: In the U.S., the term Java has become synonymous with coffee. But the number one coffee sold throughout Starbucks is Sumatran. The Indonesian brand is slowly filtering through, but tourism efforts remain hit-or-miss. A lot of people do not know about Indonesia since they are not well-traveled. They might know about Bali, but that is the only thing they are aware of about Indonesia.

Q: How has your move into overseas markets unfolded so far, particularly in Southeast Asia?

Ian Criddle: Tanamera has taken steps by expanding to Singapore. The product is solid, and it is easy for us to scale because we started the business with the intention of being a wholesaler aligned with the grab-and-go culture back in 2012. However, Indonesia was not ready for it, as the culture at the time was for people to take their time in the coffee shop. We realized we had to work in more cafés instead of focusing on wholesale. 

However, in the past four years, we have focused on B2B, and we have over 500 wholesale customers, including five-star hotel brands such as Hyatt, Four Seasons, Westin, and others. Business is going well despite the hardships we faced during the pandemic. 

Dini Aryani Criddle: At the height of the pandemic, we developed Tanamera Coffee products for home use so people could still enjoy our coffee at home. 

Ian Criddle: We slowed down on the capital investment for cafés during and after the COVID pandemic and began focusing more on our B2B operations while still opening a few stores. However, we secured some minority investment, which enabled us to expand our stores in Indonesia. We are now planning to open 120 new stores across the country over the next four years. 

We expanded into Singapore, but we had to close stores over the past couple of years. During the pandemic, we secured favorable rental deals, yet prices rose sharply when it came time to renew our leases. In addition, labor costs in Singapore are extremely high. Our B2B business is performing well there. In Singapore, the selling price is high, but so are the costs.

Q: How is Indonesia's specialty coffee scene regaining momentum today, despite global uncertainty?

Ian Criddle: There has been a slowdown in growth following the change in presidency last year and the issue with the trade tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. But since the World of Coffee event in Jakarta last May, there has been an uptick in interest again. We expected the numbers to be lower because it was a pay-to-enter event, but we saw around 30,000 attendees in the three-day event. We were able to sell over EUR 2 billion worth of products and equipment during the event. 

We have nine coffee roasters from Giesen, dating back to 2015. However, we have partnered with a new company from San Francisco that could provide us with other equipment.

Q: As you scale domestically and internationally, how do you think about capital, investment, and the constraints around quality and logistics?

Ian Criddle: We are always looking for investors because we cannot export quality beans. We can export entry-level beans, but premium beans must be roasted to ensure freshness. Logistics is also a challenge because many factors can affect quality. For Singapore and Malaysia, we operate our own roasting facility to ensure consistency, and we store our beans in vacuum packs to minimize the risk of degradation.

Q: How has Tanamera's philosophy of farmer relationships and origin control remained central to the business?

Dini Aryani Criddle: I had the idea of starting Tanamera while I was in Australia. Originally, I just wanted to focus on using 100% Indonesian coffee. It was easier and cheaper to acquire green beans from overseas, but I wanted Indonesia to be known for its specialty coffee. In 2014, I realized that we had to educate farmers to change their mindset. Since then, we have consistently worked on building relationships with them. 

At that time, Aceh coffee beans were famous, but I wanted to introduce something else from the archipelago. In 2015, we sent our coffee to join a coffee competition in Melbourne. We also won the Melbourne competition in 2016, and we even tried a competition in Paris. After that, I realized we needed to secure the supply, which is why we are deeply involved in working with the farmers and building the processing capabilities there. We wanted to use these awards to motivate them. 

We have four processing plants: West Java, Kintamani, Batukaru, and Toraja Utara. We would welcome any investment to support our expansion because we have full control from planting the seeds to harvesting. We only harvest the beans once a year.

Q: Beyond scale and recognition, what ultimately defines quality for Tanamera, both at the farm level and in the cup?

Ian Criddle: Indonesia has an incredibly unique product because of the elevation of our farms and the mineral content of the soil. However, places like Brazil have four times more yield because they were able to innovate their technology. One of the reasons Indonesian coffee is unique is the length of its harvest process, and our goal is to keep improving the taste. We are working to ensure the quality is maintained and remains free of defects. 

Dini Aryani Criddle: I would like to bring an Indonesian brand to the national stage, and that is why our goal from the beginning was to ensure quality. Along with this, education is also crucial. Most of our guests tend to drink coffee with sugar, but after encouraging them to try our coffee without sugar, they started drinking coffee black. Our coffee already tastes good without any additional condiments, and it is also healthier to drink it that way. 

We have developed an application that can be used for our loyalty program. We’ve seen almost a 50–50 split between men and women customers since we opened in office buildings. People nowadays know other coffee beans outside of Aceh.