Soon after, a middleman will show up and buy the beans, and then he’ll take them to a warehouse and remove the parchment layer, and let them dry further before the export. The next day the remaining pulp is removed by hand, and the beans are left to dry on a patio. The seeds – what we know as ‘the beans’ – are then put in a large plastic sack and left to ferment over the night. When I was in Sumatra, I saw old ladies using a big wooden pole as a kind of mortar and pestle to remove the husk. The depulping is often extremely crude and old-fashioned. When the coffee cherries are picked, they are depulped right away. It’s a more crude and random way to process the cherries compared to the washing method popular in Latin America. The process is known as wet hulling or ‘giling basah ’ in the local language. There are several reasons that this is the case, but the way the local farmers process the coffee is the most important one. Sumatran coffee is often processed with the ‘gilling basah’ method.Ĭoffee from Sumatra is known for being low acid coffee.The most famous subregions of Sumatra are Lintong close to Lake Toba, and Gayo in the Northern Aceh region.The beans are typically low-acid (but this also has to do with the roast and processing).The taste of the coffee from Sumatra is often described as earthy, creamy, chocolaty, and even mushroomy.Sumatra is an Indonesian island with fertile volcanic soil.Like Kenyan AA or Kona coffee it’s just a name with no real meaning. For that reason, much Sumatran coffee has been sold under the name ‘ Mandheling‘ (or ‘Mandailing’).īut in fact, the name refers to a tribe living in Sumatra, and not a special kind of coffee. There are many myths surrounding coffee especially, from the traditional regions.
This isn’t that strange since the bags the coffee was packed and exported in all said ‘Java.’ A bit like how tissue is often called a Kleenex, even though it’s a brand name. The coffee was exported from Jakarta on the island of Java, and that’s how Java became known as the best coffee in the world for a period in history. Here it thrived, and Indonesia quickly became the largest coffee producing nation in the world. Initially, coffee grew wild in Ethiopia, but via Yemen, the Dutch colonialists brought the plant to Indonesia in 1699. What is Sumatra Coffee? A bit of HistoryĪs you might know, Indonesia and coffee have a long history. Speculation suggests that this lead to mass extinction of humans in the area and a global climate change.
A volcano erupted around 75.000 years ago in a so-called super-volcanic eruption. Bonus-Info: mystical historical events surround Sumatra and Lake Toba.
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