Reliving Sumatra

Once in a while we find something and recognise it's potential. We shape and polish and delight at what is revealed before us. This excitement is repeated over again when we share our discoveries with others.

Back in November 2014, we set off on our first trip to Sumatra, Indonesia to look for coffee which was representative of the region, but with enough distinction and character as to be instantly recognisable as something more than typical. We found it, from one of the local producers in a small town called Dolok Sanggul and have been working with it ever since.

Breakfast on the patio at one of the producers in Dolok Sangul, Sumatra, Indonesia.

Earlier this year, during casual conversation after a cupping session, one of our colleagues suggested we submit one of our coffees to Coffee Review for appraisal. As it happened, Coffee Review had an upcoming feature on Sumatra coffee. What luck! We had the right coffee. The deadline for submissions was looming and we had to move quickly to get our coffee in on time.

We waited. It seemed longer that the time it actually took. But after several weeks we received an email. Our coffee is to be included in the review. But we had to wait until the review was released to find out our score. Needless to say, we were delighted with result. 93 points and equal second place. It was like the day we first encountered this coffee in Sumatra.

A short excerpt from Ken Davids review is below:

"Sweetly tart, elegantly earthy. Dark chocolate, fresh humus, ripe passionfruit, moist pipe tobacco, hazelnut in aroma and cup. Brisk, sweet acidity; full, syrupy mouthfeel. The tartly sweet finish calls up earthy chocolate and nut-toned fruit in the short, rounding to a chocolaty tobacco in the long."

A link to the Coffee Review article can be found here.