Three Questions with Esther Singer of Segara Espresso

Segara Espresso Founder Esther Singer. All photos courtesy of Esther Singer.

For Esther Singer, a profession in espresso grew out of a basic scientific impulse: Begin digging and see what turns up.

The German-Indonesian-Californian scientist spent greater than a decade researching soils, ecosystems and plant-microbe interactions, together with as a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory. She later moved into biotechnology, serving as director of product and market growth for Twist Bioscience.

Singer stated espresso in the end introduced these scientific pursuits collectively along with her later expertise in product growth and advertising and marketing.

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“I grew to become fascinated by espresso as an agricultural system: genetics, soil, local weather, processing, fermentation, drying, roasting,” Singer lately advised DCN. “You possibly can change one variable and doubtlessly style the end result within the cup. That’s irresistible to a scientist.”

In 2025, after shifting to Reno, Nevada, Singer launched Segara Espresso, a roasting firm devoted completely to specialty arabica coffees from Indonesia with direct-to-consumer and wholesale gross sales. Singer stated she maintains direct relationships with espresso producers in Indonesia. 

Singer’s mom is Indonesian and her father is German, and he or she grew up in Germany between the 2 cultures earlier than spending a lot of her grownup life in California.

But Singer stated the Indonesian coffees she encountered in america represented solely a slim slice of what she discovered when she started wanting extra carefully at Indonesia’s huge espresso manufacturing panorama.

“The extra I appeared, the extra there was to find: cultivars I had by no means encountered within the U.S., producers doing actually fascinating work, totally different approaches to processing, and coffees that didn’t match neatly into the profile I had discovered to affiliate with Indonesia,” Singer stated. “Sooner or later I finished pondering, ‘Somebody ought to carry these coffees right here,’ and determined to do it myself.”

The Segara identify, which interprets to “sea” or “ocean” in Javanese, is a reference to the huge Indonesian archipelago and the connections Singer hopes to foster by espresso. 

“The thought is to go very deep into one coffee-producing nation reasonably than constructing a traditional multi-origin portfolio,” Singer stated. “That provides us an unlimited quantity to discover whereas constructing experience and long-term relationships in Indonesia.”

Right here’s extra from DCN’s dialog with Esther Singer.

Three Questions with Esther Singer

What excites you most about espresso?

The variety of disciplines that converge in a single cup.

Espresso sits on the intersection of plant genetics, soil science, ecology, agriculture, microbiology, processing, chemistry and sensory science — after which layers tradition, craft and human choice on high of all of it.

I can strategy a espresso as a scientist and ask why it behaves or tastes a sure manner, then strategy that very same espresso as a roaster and ask how I can greatest categorical it, and eventually hand the cup to somebody who doesn’t care about any of these questions and easily says, “That’s scrumptious.”

I like that each one three experiences can coexist.

And in the end, espresso is remarkably good at bringing individuals collectively. Segara’s mission is to attach human to human, and human to nature. Espresso provides us a really tangible strategy to do each.

What troubles you most about espresso?

How simply complexity will get flattened.

We depend on classes in espresso as a result of they’re helpful — origin, course of, roast degree, tasting notes — however ultimately these classes can grow to be assumptions.

Indonesia is an efficient instance. For a lot of customers, Indonesian espresso grew to become carefully related to Sumatra, wet-hulled processing, heavy physique and earthy flavors. These coffees are an essential a part of Indonesia’s espresso historical past, however a class can grow to be limiting once we begin treating it as a definition.

I’m additionally troubled by how simply the dialog about espresso can grow to be indifferent from agriculture. Espresso doesn’t start with a roaster, a barista or a stupendous cafe. It begins as a plant within the floor.

Local weather, soil, plant well being, labor, economics and the choices producers make decide what is feasible for everybody downstream. Coming from environmental science, I don’t assume I’ll ever be capable to separate the cup from the ecosystem and the those who produced it.

What would you be doing if it weren’t for espresso?

I might most likely nonetheless be someplace on the intersection of science, nature and entrepreneurship.

I’ve at all times been drawn to understanding pure programs, however I’m equally motivated by turning data into one thing tangible — one thing that may go away the laboratory, attain individuals and create connections.

Espresso has given me an surprising strategy to carry these elements of my life collectively. It lets me keep near the land and to science, whereas constructing one thing entrepreneurial and deeply human.

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