Description

Coffees type: varied
Growing Altitude: 900-2,400 m.a.s.l.
Preparation: Indonesia is semi-washed

The district of Central Aceh – located in the heart of the Special Territory of the Province of Aceh, at an altitude varying from 900 to 2.400 meters above sea level, with an average temperature hovering around 20 degrees Celsius throughout the year, abundant rainfall and well-endowed with fertile soils – is an ideal place for agriculture.

These favorable climatological conditions have since long been exploited by Central Aceh’s population by growing coffee – its main source of income. The yearly production of an average 25.000 mts of clean coffee from an area of some 32.750 hectares proves that the epithet of Central Aceh being a “coffee granary” is justified. About 85% of the coffee production concerns arabica coffee. This makes Central Aceh not only the biggest producer of arabica coffee of Indonesia, but of south-east Asia as well. In addition to coffee, the conditions are also favorable for the cultivation of tobacco, sugarcane, tea, cloves, fruits, vegetables and various bean crops. Over the years these crops have provided a decent living to most of Central Aceh’s inhabitants.

In addition to its favorable agricultural conditions, Central Aceh is also well known for its tourism potentials. The beautiful lake “Laut Tawar” and other scenic places support Central Aceh’s development policy in that direction. Moreover, the traditions of the Gayo society display a rich and enticing cultural heritage.

With its scenic beauty and its rich cultural traditions of its Gayo community, Central Aceh is the land of didong, traditional embroidery and the Organic certified Sumatra Mandheling Gayo Belangi arabica coffee.

The Organic certified Indonesia Sumatra Mandheling Gayo Belangi arabica coffee is processed in a very careful way. Its starts with the selection of red cherries on the tree. No mixing takes places with coffees grown on lower altitude which often has a negative impact on the quality and roasting of the coffee. It’s a hand pulped (semi-washed) arabica coffee. Hand pulped means in this specific case that the coffee is pulped immediately after picking. The mucilage is washed off by hand after which the coffee is dried. This drying often takes place in front of the house on plastic tarps. The smallholders bring their coffee (in fact still wet parchment with a 40-50% moisture content!) to the central processing unit where the coffee is hulled in a semi-wet state which way of processing, in stages, gives the coffee beans their famous bluish green appearance and which way of processing is claimed to be the main contributor to the heavy body/low acidity characteristics Indonesian semi-washed arabica coffee is known for. This wet hulling is called ‘giling basah’ which literally means ‘wet grinding’ in local Bahasa. After hulling the wet coffee beans (then called ‘kopi labu’) are dried until it reaches an average moisture level of 17-18% at which stage the coffee beans (then called ‘asalan’) are often moved to a warehouse in or near to the port of shipment where the coffee is made export ready (final drying till max 12,5% moisture, sorting, handpicking, bagging).