SUMATRA FT-FLO/USA ORGANIC BENER MERIAH BUANA MANDIRI MANDHELING GRADE 1 -
Coffee Background
Aceh (pronounced AH-CHEY) is the northernmost province of Sumatra. Its highland territory, surrounding Lake Tawar and the central city of Takengon, is considered to be the epicenter of one of the world’s most unique coffee terroirs. 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 plants, 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 layered biomass, and almost every square meter of the region seems to exude life. Nothing is ever still. Including coffee ripening, which occurs ten months out of the year. Sumatra’s smallholder coffee is a complicated process. Notably, processing is typically not overseen by a single individual or team; instead, coffee moves task by task through different parties before reaching its final, fully-dried, state. Coffee farms in Bener Meriah average 0.5-2 hectares each. Every village with cooperative members has a collector (or more) who receives fresh-picked cherry for washed processing each day. Once a batch of coffee has been depulped, fermented overnight, washed clean, and then sun-dried to the touch, each collector then delivers the batch to the cooperative’s central mill. It is at the mill where the coffee is mechanically hulled of its parchment, leaving behind just the soft, high-moisture coffee bean (thus earning the term “wet-hulled”), all of which is spread out on large patios to continue drying. Each handoff is orchestrated by the cooperative, and the members’ coffee is traced throughout each step of the chain.
Grower
Farmers organized around CV. Gayo Mandiri
Altitude
1400 - 1600 masl
Variety
Tim tim, Catimor
Soil
Volcanic loam
Region
Bener Meriah Regency, Aceh Province, Sumatra, Indonesia
Process
Wet hulled and dried in the sun
Harvest
October – January, April - June
Certification
Fair Trade (FT FLO/USA) | Organic
