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Flavor and taste characteristics of Indonesian coffee beans in addition to Java coffee in Sumatra Aceh

Published: 2026-09-29 Author: World Gafei 👁 177 views

Last updated 2026-09-29 — Although the Indonesian island of Java has become famous in the coffee industry, Arabica coffee production in Sumatra began only under Dutch colonial rule in the 1700s. Aceh, located at the northern end of the island around Lake Tawar, was the first area to start growing coffee and is known for its complex characteristics of fruit, soil and wood, mainly from their traditional name gilling.

Although Java, Indonesia, is already famous in the coffee world, Arabica coffee production in Sumatra only began in the 1700s under Dutch colonial rule. Aceh, located at the northern tip of the islands surrounding Lake Tawar, was the first region to start growing coffee and is known for its complex character of fruit, soil and wood, mainly from what they traditionally call "gilling basah". wet dehulling process.

Sumatra Aceh Tengah -Organic -Indonesia

This coffee is produced by various growers growing around the town of Aceh Tengga, near Lake Lautawar in northwestern Sumatra. These small-scale family producers farm in traditional ways, without the use of pesticides or chemicals. Aceh Tengah area is fully organic certified, received and processed separately by the factory to maintain its organic state.

Sumatra has few coffee plantations or even cooperatives. Instead, a large number of small growers-farms rarely larger than 2 hectares-sell small amounts of coffee at their local village markets and fight for the best prices for their semi-washed coffee.

The local market system means that the traditional concept of traceability does not apply to Indonesia. Generally speaking, coffee can only be traced back to the village level. This makes our choice of milling partners critical to ensuring the quality of cherries from multiple smallholders all the way to the dock. Since 2004, we have been working with our partner PT Sarimakmur to select only selected Sumatra coffees. Their factories are clean, efficient, well-managed and staffed by a large number of manual pickers, all of whom earn at least the government minimum wage, many of whom earn more than that, with performance-related bonuses.

Like most coffee produced by Sumatra smallholder farmers, this coffee is "semi-washed." Growers pulp cherries on the farm using a basic pulper; they then dry the mucus portion and send the crop to the miller to remove the parchment in a semi-wet state. This process is thought to give Sumatra beans their distinctive blue-green appearance.