Changing of the guard. Of Indonesia’s 17,000 islands, 6,000 are inhabited, and only a haldful are familiar to the world of coffee– Sulawesi, Flores, Bali, Java and Sumatra. Coffee has deep roots in the history of Indonesia; the term ‘Java’ is a nod to first coffee plantations planted on that island by the Dutch in late 1800’s. Other than the balkanization of plantations into smaller family farms, and the continual creation of new varietals, coffee is grown much the same way it was two centuries ago. However, recently, old traditions are being questioned by younger generations who are facing new realities brought on by education, the Internet, and the rise of specialty coffee markets around the world. Communities are organizing to break the entrenched ‘tokeh’ system of selling through loan-sharking middle-men, and are taking ownership of their coffee through to the cup instead of stopping at the scale.

And this is the story of Indonesia; an ancient story of the relationship between coffee, climate and culture. It is a story whose authors are in the process of writing a new chapter: check in with us season after season to taste new iterations of old traditions.

Silimakuta Sumatra

Silimakuta is a small community in the Lake Toba region whose coffees have traditionally been sold as Mandheling.  As is common throughout Sumatra, this coffee is processed in the traditional Giling Bassah - or wet hulling - method. Members of the KUD Cooperative deliver semi-dry parchment to a collection center, who cleans up the coffee (handpicking) before arrivel of a truck from the centralized dry-mill and final drying center.  Detailed farmer and inventory records by the cooperative and our export partners allows for a rare and truly transparant Sumatran, both in terms of cup clarity and in our ability to trace this coffee back to an organized and dedicated coffee community.  

Check back often, as we add other KUD-member communities in the North Lake Toba region to our offering list.  

Silimakuta Sumatra Photos

3 yr old coffee farm 2

Indonesia_Sumatra Silimakuta Lot Separation

parchment collection 22

Indonesia_Sumatra Batak Farmer

guts of a hand pulper

Indonesia_Sumatra Silimakuta Drying Cloves next to coffee

Indonesia_Sumatra Silimakuta House on Stilts

Indonesia_Sumatra Silimakuta houses on Lake Toba

Indonesia_Sumatra Silimkauta how coffee is bought

Indonesia_Sumatra Batak Family

Indonesia_Sumatra Batak Architecture and Coffee

Indonesia_Suamtra Silimakuta Batak Architecture

2 bros on their coffee farm

3 yr old coffee farm

Batak are excellent farmers and intercroppers

KUD Cooperative sign

Taylor and Tarygan collection station

a common well done tomato farm

a wet huller

along Lake Toba, northern coast

busy day at the mill warehouse

coffee farm

color sorter at mill

color sorter specs

common lunch - delivery wrapped

common lunch insides - chicken, rice, veg sauce. amazing

cupping at mill

downtown Saribou Dolok

handpicking at mill

healthy coffee tree

high quality parchment collector

hotel at Lake Toba

laying out wet parchment for drying

loading container at mill

organic cow manure fertilizer

parchment collection 3

parchment collector

parchment drying house

pork and soup lunch

pork broth aromatic soup

rakes for parchment patios

shaking out freshly pulped beans so sins stay in bin

single stem farming

superman floaty in medan

view at Lake Toba

view from hotel room at Lake toba

view from the Highlands onto Lake Toba

view from the Highlands onto Lake Toba2

waterfall above Lake Toba

weighing parchment on delivery

welcome to Saribou Dolok

wooden hand pulper

Aceh

Aceh is the northernmost region of Sumatra; known for great coffees. This reputation was won in Aceh’s Bener Meriah district, a place to go to find the right altitude, the right equipment, and the right farmers for growing specialty coffee. Aceh is on the northern tip of Sumatra, and home to some of the world’s rarest animals such as the Sumatran rhino, tiger, elephant and orangutan. It’s also home to a truly unique coffee growing culture. Ninety-percent of the area’s thirty-five thousand families grow coffee, and eighty percent of them do so organically using locally unique method. New genetics have even taken root in Aceh too, leading to varietals that don’t grow anywhere else in the world. Coffee grows all around the Lake Laut Tawar in Aceh’s Gayo highlands, and has since the Dutch introduced the crop to the area in 1904 (it had been growing further south in Toba since 1888). Post-independence local farmers took over Dutch plantations, breaking them up into smaller plots. 

Now you can find these small farmers harvesting throughout the year, pulping coffees at home using wooden pulpers, and selling the wet parchment to collectors or 'tokehs'. More recently communities have been organizing, investing in central (metal) pulpers, and delivering directly to mills (or arranging direct pick-ups). This arrangement brings us all closer to the farm, and the coffees we buy closer to a central place for pulping / drying. This creates a cleaner coffee and preserves the flavor profile of that specific micro-region. This work is happening at a local level, and is a trend we support through the community-specific coffees we buy. 

Aceh

Wonosari Farmer_3

Wonasari Farmer_2

Wonasari Farmer_1

Pondok Baru Cherry Selection

Pondok Baru Farmer Collector

Pondok Baru Coffee Trees

Lintong Sumatra

Lintong Sumatra

Indonesia_Sumatra Lintong Drying Area

Indonesia_Sumatra Lintong Drying Center

Indonesia_Sumatra Lintong Drying

Indonesia_Sumatra Lintong Farmer

Indonesia_Sumatra Lintong Nursery

Indonesia_Sumatra Lintong Wet Hulling

Indonesia_Sumatra Lintong planting new seeds