We currently have a small, fresh selection of Mandheling coffees available, notorious for its rich and smooth flavour with chocolate notes.
Renowned for its unique taste and unusual varietals, Sumatran coffee exhibits peculiar flavours which coffee lovers have come to both love and hate, with earthy flavour notes, heavy body, and traditionally lower acid characteristics being attributed to the coffee. It is thought that production of Sumatran coffee began around 1884 near Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world, and the microclimates and environments were quickly identified as perfect growing conditions for Robusta. Despite this, coffee lovers have often considered Sumatran Arabica to be the superior varietal.
As an island within the Indonesian archipelago, the high humidity and tropical climates of Sumatra were in fact the catalyst in making Indonesian coffee as famous as it is today. With producers forced to adapt processing methods to cater to the varietal’s unusual growth as well as the high humidity and environmental moisture, wet hulling was born, a process which involved farmers rushing the drying process. The farmers dry the coffee to roughly 50% moisture, compared to the usual 10-12% over a longer period most coffees are dried to. The coffee is then sold to middlemen who further distribute the coffee to be air dried to the desired moisture content, whilst still exposed to the tropical Sumatran elements. This exposure to the harsh varying temperatures without the protective parchment layer results in the earthy, full-body, low-acidity Sumatran coffee that we see today, and creates the unusual yet distinguished cup which Sumatra has become familiar for.
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