Sumatra Aceh Tengah -Organic - Indonesia

This coffee is produced by various growers who farm around the town of Aceh Tengah, close to Lake Laut Tawar in the far north-west of Sumatra. These small, family producers farm in the traditional way without the use of pesticides or chemicals. The Aceh Tengah area is fully certified organic and was received and processed separately by the mill to retain its organic status.

There are very few coffee estates or even co-ops in Sumatra. Instead, a huge number of tiny growers - farms rarely exceed 2 hectares - sell small quantities of coffee at their local village market and bargain hard for the best price for their semi-washed coffee.

The local market system means that traditional notions of ‘traceability’ do not apply in Indonesia. Generally coffees are only traceable to village level. This makes our choice of milling partner absolutely crucial to safeguard the quality of the cherry from the multiple smallholders all the way to the quayside. We have been working with our partners, PT Sarimakmur, since 2004 to select only the pick-of-the-crop Sumatran coffees. Their mills are clean, efficient, well-managed and staffed by a legion of hand pickers, all of whom receive at least the government minimum wage with many earning more than this with performance-related bonuses.

Like most coffees produced by smallholders on Sumatra, this coffee is ‘semi-washed’. Growers pulp their cherries at the farm using basic pulping machines; then, they partially dry the mucilage before sending the crop on to millers to remove the parchment in a semi-wet state. It is thought that this process gives Sumatran beans their distinctive bluish-green appearance.