About this Coffee
A perfect example of a unique bourbon varietal. This fair trade organic blend offers sweet, smooth and robust flavors of sweet yellow bell pepper, herbal sage, and cacao nibs. The fragrance is closely associated with Sumatra and garden vegetable.
Sumatra, the second-largest island in the Republic of Indonesia where Mandheling coffees are grown on the lofty, volcanic slopes of Mount Leuser, near the port of Padang in west-central Sumatra. Regional coffee distinctions in the northern provinces of Sumatra are interestingly all based on human ethnicity, rather than geography itself. This name honors the Mandailing people, an ethnic group in the Batak area. “Mandheling” is a broad label for a widespread cultural group in Sumatra and Malaysia and subsequently the most common coffee trading term, applying to almost any chosen blend of wet-hulled coffees from across the northern half of the island.
Aceh (pronounced AH-CHEY) is the northernmost province of Sumatra and the local city of Takengon, is considered to be the epicenter of one of the world’s most unique coffee terroirs
due to its isolated heirloom set of typica and catimor-based cultivars, it’s uniquely fertile microclimates, land husbandry, and tradition of wet-hulled processing. Coffee farms in this area are managed with the experience of many generations of cultivation, while also harmoniously woven into their surrounding tropical forests. The canopies are loud and fields are almost impenetrably thick with coffee and fruit trees and vegetables, all of which are constantly flushing with new growth. Year-round mists and rain showers never cease, farm floors are spongy and deep with compost, and almost every square meter of the region seems to exude life.
Wet-Hull: Giling Basah is the traditional Sumatran method of processing coffee. It involves hulling parchment at roughly 50 percent moisture content, versus the 10 to 12 percent moisture that’s common elsewhere. This unusual practice results in a trademark flavor profile—a light acidity, lingering richness, and earthy, spicy and chocolate notes.
A blend of Co-Ops
This Mandheling blend coffee is grown by small holders in shade, Organic Certified, Grade 1 Sumatra coffees as Double-Picked (DP) or Triple-Picked (TP), referring to the number of times the coffee is hand-sorted for defects.
Utamagro set up a cooperative in Aceh called Koperasi Utamagro Tani Gayo. KSU Adil Wiladah Mabrur and Koperasi Gayo Mandiri are closely associated co-ops. Buana Mandiri Co-Op currently have around 1,300 members, whose farms, in the Bener Meriah region, with its own mill in Bener Meriah. And Koperasi Petani Kopi Arabika (KPKA) Cooperative represents smallholder in Kabupaten Bener Meriah, a regency in Aceh district surrounding lake Takengon. And Kokowagayo, a women-owned and women-managed coffee cooperative on the Aceh province. Kokowagayo has 567 farmer members from seven villages in the Bener Meriah districts.