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When you are pairing coffee with things like deeply chocolatey cakes, caramel, and intensely sweet, rich, dark desserts, Indonesian and Asian coffees are your best pick. They tend to be very strong and heavy coffees with powerful and smooth flavors. They have a low acidity usually so those high and winey overtones don't come through and compete with sweet tastes.

They are usually roasted very dark, with an edge of bitterness and earthy flavors predominant.

We like these for evening coffee and to pair with a nibble of good dark chocolate, as opposed to lighter roasts. Sometimes we think of Latin American for breakfast coffee, Kenyan and other African for morning and coffee break, and Asian for the evening. Morning, noon and night!

Some of the major areas and types of coffee in Indonesia and the Pacific are Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Sulawesi, Java, which is east of Jakarta in Indonesia. Look for these names when picking out an Asian coffee.

This again is such a broad overview; each region, nation, and even local village in these major geographical areas have unique characteristics and flavors - the essence of terroir.

(Images: Outland Java, Wikimedia)