Also of Interest
Sumatra Gayo G1 FTO (2020 crop)
About This Coffee
About this Coffee
Gayo is a Fair-Trade and Organic certified, grade 1 coffee from the Aceh region of northern Sumatra. This coffee is wet-hulled, a process almost unique to Indonesian coffees. Known locally as Giling Basah, wet hulling involves removing the coffee's husk (parchment) while the moisture content is still relatively high, and then drying the green beans until optimum moisture content is reached.
History of Coffee in Sumatra
Coffee seeds first arrived in Java from India in 1696, but the initial plantings were wiped out by flooding. Cuttings from Ceylon arrived in 1699 with a guy named Hendrik, who would eventually become, as an employee of the Dutch East India Company, the Governor-General in 1718. It’s unclear when coffee planting arrived in Sumatra specifically. Java was the coffee king of Indonesia (aka the Dutch East Indies) for at least 100 years after cuttings first arrived from Ceylon before coffee of any significant volume was grown on other islands. And well into the 20th century, much coffee grown throughout Indonesia was called Java. As with Ceylon, rust disease decimated coffee crops throughout Indonesia at the end of the 19th century. Unlike it’s coffee mothership, Indonesia did not switch to growing mostly tea and coffee bounced back thanks in part to a happy accident. Nature decided on its own that the world needed an Arabica/Robusta hybrid and decided not to wait around for scientists to work it out. This hybrid, called Timor, was discovered not long after rust appeared in the islands and it was, coincidentally, resistant to rust. Timor has served as progenitor to several intentional hybrids, including Catimor.
Growing Coffee in Sumatra
The coffees of Sumatra are commonly heavy bodied and savory, often exhibiting hints of tobacco, herb, cedar, and prune sweetness. Coffee grows in the northern highlands, in an areas known as Tapanuli, Aceh and Gayo; and further south at Lintong, near lake Toba (one of the deepest lakes in the world). Mandheling is not a region but a people of northern Sumatra, but much coffee from that area is named after them. Most coffee in Sumatra is grown between 2,500 and 5,500 feet and nearly all coffee is grown by smallholders coffee farmer. Nine out of 10 coffee farmers in Sumatra grow coffee on less than one hectare of land. For the most part, Sumatran coffee is wet hulled.
- Region Aceh
- Producer Type Small Holder Farmers
- Processing Wet Hulled
- Bag Type Grain Pro / Ecotact
- Plant Species Arabica
- On Sale No
- Top Lot No
- Status Spot
- Certifications Fair Trade, Fair Trade Organic, Organic
- Coffee Grade IDN CA WA MAN SUM
- CTRM Contract Number P601996-1
- Country of Origin Indonesia
- Warehouse Continental NJ