In Cihawuk, coffee is more than just a crop growing on the slopes. It is present in the villagers’ daily conversations, in family chores, in group activities, and in the way the local youth are beginning to view their own village. In farming communities like this, agriculture is never far from daily life. Young people watch their parents head out to the fields, pitch in whenever they are needed, or work on other people’s land to earn some extra income.
However, being close to farming does not always mean seeing a future in it. For some young people, coffee is still often viewed as their parents’ business: planted, picked, dried, and sold. Yet, beyond the coffee beans that everyone knows, there is another space that the younger generation can break into—the world of processing, packaging, marketing, product storytelling, and small businesses that align much closer with their interests.
It is in this space that Oca, a young woman from Cihawuk connected with the KPS Mencil Lestari activities, began to find her interest. She hadn’t followed every single activity from the start, nor was she very familiar with terms like agroforestry or kebun talun. But when the business model mentoring and practical training for processing coffee husks into cascara and baked goods came along, Oca got involved. From that point on, she saw that coffee doesn’t just stop at the bean.
“I Just Found Out That Coffee Husks Can Be Turned Into Cake”
What left the deepest impression on Oca wasn’t the big terms or long explanations. Instead, what she remembers most is a simple hands-on practice: making cake from coffee husks.
“The most interesting part was learning how to make the cake. I just found out that you could actually make cake using coffee husks,” is how she described her experience.
That statement sounds innocent, but that is precisely where its power lies. New knowledge often takes root not through heavy theory, but through something that can be touched, smelled, stirred, tasted, and then envisioned as a product. Coffee husks, which were previously easily dismissed as waste, turned out to be something that could be washed, dried, roasted, blended, and then processed into ingredients for drinks or baked goods.
In Sundanese, there is an expression teu kapiceun—nothing goes to waste. This phrase feels perfectly apt to describe Oca’s experience. From coffee husks that initially drew little attention, she learned that even the part considered waste still holds value. The coffee beans become a beverage. The husks become cascara. The cascara can be brewed into tea, or integrated into baked goods. From a single coffee cherry, multiple possibilities unfold.
For smallholder coffee groups, this perspective is crucial. Added value does not always begin with heavy machinery or distant markets. It can start simply with the courage to re-examine what has been right in front of their eyes all along.
Nothing and No Part of Coffee Goes to Waste
The knowledge that stuck most with Oca was how to process coffee so that no part of it goes to waste. She noted that while the coffee beans are processed into coffee, the husks can be turned into cascara tea and baking ingredients. She even still remembers the simple process: the coffee husks are washed first, dried for a few days, and then roasted. After that, the husks can be blended into a powder and mixed right into the batter.
To make the cake, Oca mentioned ingredients commonly found in any home kitchen: eggs, sugar, flour, margarine, and cascara powder. There was no sense of complexity in her explanation. Precisely because it was so simple, the practice felt like something that could easily be done again. She didn’t just listen and watch; she actively took part in the baking process.
At this point, the change that occurs is more than just the addition of technical skills. What changes is the way of looking at coffee. Previously, coffee was easily understood simply as a plant or a crop harvest. After the activity, coffee begins to be seen as a material that can be processed more creatively. There is an element of curiosity, experimentation, business opportunity, and a space for young people to step into.
When asked whether processed coffee husks hold economic value, Oca answered with confidence: absolutely. Especially now, with online sales channels readily available. This response reflects a mindset characteristic of the younger generation. They don’t just view a product as something to be sold around the village; they envision the possibilities of a much broader market through online media.
From Helping to Learning Alongside
Before learning about cascara processing, the involvement of young people in agriculture in Cihawuk was mostly limited to a helping role. Oca mentioned that while youth in the villages do frequently farm or pitch in with the work, their role hasn’t really crossed over into the business management side yet.
Oca herself does not exaggerate her role. When it comes to administrative tasks or work involving a laptop, she admits she mostly just helps out whenever needed. If someone is tied up, she can step in. She feels she hasn’t been heavily involved just yet, but she is more than ready if given the opportunity.
Interestingly, Oca has a background in computer education. Because of this, she feels there is knowledge that can be developed even further. For her, helping out the group isn’t just a matter of physical labor, but also an opportunity to put the skills she once studied back to use. This highlights that the space for youth within a collective doesn’t always have to mirror the space occupied by the older generation. While the elders excel in the fields and have years of farming experience, the youth can step in through record-keeping, design, packaging, promotion, documentation, and marketing.
Oca herself admits that she is more interested in coffee packaging. She knows her skills aren’t professional yet, and she doesn’t want to sound exaggerating. But she genuinely likes that aspect. Her statement is simple: she’s still learning. It is precisely from this that we see how the potential of young people often begins with a small interest that needs to be nurtured and accompanied, rather than immediately being burdened with major targets.
Packaging, Online, and the New Language of the Youth
For Oca, packaging is much more than just a wrapper. In the hands of young people, packaging becomes a way to make village products look neater, gain recognition, and step into the market with confidence. Coffee, cascara, or baked goods made from coffee husks need a story. A product doesn’t just need to taste good; it also needs to be identified: where it comes to life, who creates it, what makes it unique, and why it stands apart.
This is where young people find their unique space. They are naturally closer to gadgets, social media, product photography, simple design, and visual storytelling. Oca does not call herself an expert. Yet, her interest in packaging signals that regenerating a collective doesn’t always have to start with a grand call to action. Sometimes, it is enough to open up just one small space: who wants to learn label design, who wants to take product photos, who wants to try selling online, who wants to keep track of orders.
Within the context of KPS Mencil Lestari, these small spaces can serve as an entry point. The youth do not always need to be asked to immediately grasp the entire concept of FOLU, agroforestry, or social forestry. They can start with what is close at hand: processing coffee husks, improving the packaging, photographing the products, or writing more engaging stories about the village.
From there, step by step, they can begin to grasp the bigger picture: that coffee is not just a commodity, but a vital part of how the village protects its land, develops its economy, and cares for the forest.
A Space for Inquiry That Needs to Become a Habit
Oca observes that young people are actually capable and willing to get involved. However, there is one common obstacle: the pride or hesitation to ask questions. In everyday conversations, youth sometimes feel reluctant if they have to ask too much. They fear looking clueless or being seen as not understanding. In reality, having a space to ask questions is precisely where the learning process begins.
Therefore, mentoring for the youth needs to be made more fluid. It doesn’t always have to be formal. It can happen through hands-on practice, small group discussions, packaging workshops, recipe trials, or online marketing training. The important thing is that young people feel they are allowed to ask, allowed to try, allowed to make mistakes, and allowed to learn from scratch.
Oca mentions that to attract the youth, the keys are cooperation and sharing. That phrase sounds simple, yet it is vital. It is not enough to just give young people instructions. They need to be invited to share, listen, try, and see that their role is genuinely valued. If the approach is too rigid, they can easily drift away. But if the space is kept open, coffee-related activities can become a place for mutual learning.
From Clueless to Capable
When asked to describe the activities she took part in using just a single sentence, Oca replied that they educate the community, especially young people like herself, turning it “from clueless to capable.” She wrapped it up with a deeply Sundanese expression: “bermanfaat pisan”—truly, immensely beneficial.
The word pisan carries a depth of feeling that the word “very” cannot fully capture. It holds a sense of closeness, a genuine acknowledgment, and firsthand experience. For Oca, this benefit is far from abstract. She now knows that coffee husks can be processed. She knows that cascara can be turned into tea or a baking ingredient. She knows that such products can hold real economic value. And she is starting to see that packaging and online sales can truly become a space for the youth.
The hope is simple: for the activities to keep moving forward, for the group to stay solid, to understand one another, and to talk often so that misunderstandings don’t happen. If someone doesn’t understand, just ask. Don’t rush to jump to conclusions. In that statement, Oca is actually highlighting a crucial principle in community empowerment: technical knowledge must go hand in hand with good communication.
For partners, mentors, village governments, universities, and KPS Mencil Lestari, the message from Oca is clear. Young people should not just be positioned as a complement to activities. They need to be given space that aligns with their interests and capabilities. Cascara processing, packaging design, digital promotion, simple bookkeeping, product photography, and the development of coffee-derived businesses can become a much more vibrant and dynamic entry point.
In Cihawuk, the future of coffee is shaped not only by those who plant on the slopes, but also by those who can find value in what has long been considered waste. From coffee husks that are washed, sun-dried, roasted, and then baked into cakes, Oca found a small door toward a new role. And through that small door, the youth of Cihawuk can begin to read coffee in a different way: not just as a harvest from the field, but as an opportunity that is teu kapiceun—not wasted, as long as knowledge, trust, and opportunity continue to be nurtured together.