Earthlings
Coffee
Earthlings is a Sarawak roastery and learning space that partners with local growers across the coffee chain, from planting to roasting to education.
Their current focus includes Sarawak Liberica, a rare species with deep roots in local farming and strong potential for a warming climate.
At Serumpun Mulu, Earthlings invites you to meet coffee in three simple forms that tell one story, and to notice how these forms travel into our menus.
In global trade, Liberica is almost invisible, yet its story in Malaysia runs more than a century deep. Malaysia holds the largest share of Liberica cultivation globally, with planting recorded since the 1880s, and Sarawak’s communities have kept it in small gardens and mixed farms for generations.
Today it is also being studied for resilience as temperatures rise.
Earthlings work at this intersection of heritage and future. The team supports more than 450 Sarawak farmers with better cultivation and post-harvest practices, runs research with partners to match varieties to local terroir, roasts with care, and teaches so value can stay closer to home.
Specialty coffee here can be tiny in scale, even nano-lots, yet it carries a large idea. What grows from this land can reach the world, and livelihoods can grow with it.
What You Will See at Mulu
This is coffee in three voices.
- Green beans show the seed as it is, ready for storage and trade.
- Roasted beans carry the aroma and sweetness that roasting unlocks.
- Cascara is the dried coffee cherry, displayed here for its fragrance and texture.
A sealed coffee blossom jar lets you catch the soft perfume of the bloom.
There is no sampling on site. These displays are for looking, feeling and smelling.
How To
Experience It?
Start with the blossom jar to set your nose.
Hold a handful of green beans and feel the density, then compare with roasted beans and notice the lighter weight and stronger aroma.
Open the cascara jar and look at the dried skins of the cherry.
Later in the evening, watch for Earthlings’ coffee appearing in Chef James’s menu.
Micro-FAQ
Can I taste anything here?
No. This station is for look, feel and smell only.
What is cascara?
The dried skin of the coffee cherry. It is often brewed as a light tea, but here it is displayed for learning and aroma only.
Why show green beans?
Green coffee stores and travels well, which helps interior communities trade on quality before roasting.
