
The remaining fruit on the coffee beans is then washed off the next morning. The beans are stored in coffee sacks to ferment for one night. This will be done with a machine or manually. Workers then remove the skins from each individual cherry. The coffee is harvested from the plants and separated so the cherries remain. When going through the wet hulling process, these are the stages that are followed: This involves removing the skin of the coffee cherry, fermenting the beans, and washing off the remaining fruit before leaving it to partially dry.Įach method of coffee harvesting will alter the taste of the bean, but the taste would also be dependent on the roasting method and technique used. Strong cedar notes, consistent, balanced, sweet tobacco, winey, spicy, chocolate.Sumatra coffee is harvested using the wet hulling technique. This extra quality control results in a very consistent cup including only cherries at optimum ripeness. We buy Grade 1 Sumatras as Double-Picked (DP) or Triple-Picked (TP), referring to the number of times the coffee is hand-picked for defects. Notes of chocolate are evident in the finish. This unique Sumatran process results in a trademark flavor profile (low acidity and a richness that lingers on the back of the palate) and gives the green beans a signature dark color. Giling Basah, the name of the traditional Sumatran process, involves hulling the parchment off of the bean at roughly 50% moisture content for comparison, most other processes hull coffee at around 10-12% moisture. The unique method used in its production results in a very full body with a concentrated flavor, garnished with herbal nuances and a spicy finish. “Mandailing”, spelled here correctly, is technically an ethnic group in Indonesia, not a region, as is Batak. Coffee trees were successfully replanted and quickly gained a large share of the world market until the plantations were ravaged again.ĭuring World War II. Yet by the end of the century disease completely destroyed the crop. Within a few years, Indonesian coffee dominated the world’s coffee market.
Coffee trees were originally brought to Indonesia in the early 19th century by the Dutch, who sought to break the world-wide Arabic monopoly on the cultivation of coffee.
Sumatra Mandheling coffee is grown on the lofty volcanic slopes of Mount Leuser near the port of Padang in the Balak region of west-central Sumatra. Sumatra is the second largest island of the Republic of Indonesia. Approximately 15% of all the coffee grown in Indonesia is Arabica. It is no wonder that some of the world’s most famous coffees are grown on the islands of the Malay Archipelago of Indonesia: Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Java. Therefore, they are mountainous and have rich soil that is ideal for growing coffee. Many of the islands of Indonesia were formed by volcanoes.