From the Field, New Arrivals
Monday, February 3, 2020
Rethinking Indonesian Coffees
This year’s lots from Koerintji Barokah Bersama Cooperative in Kerinci are all-star outliers. Indonesian coffees can get pigeonholed due to their reputation for prominent earthiness, spiciness and complexity. But that doesn’t mean they can’t continue to surprise us. And this year, boy did they.
The juicy, bright, fruit notes in these coffees are the product of months and years of focusing on quality improvement. “It’s not a coincidence that scores have improved,” says Daniel Shewmaker, Manager Indonesia and East Timor for Sucafina. “It’s been a deliberate effort.”
We’re proud to be purchasing coffees from the cooperative for the second year running. Daniel and his team have been working closely with the cooperative for three years. Lead by Triyono, Cooperative manager, “they’ve improved quality control,” Daniel explained. “[Together] we’ve been working, changing and tweaking little things.”
Another major step has been moving milling, sorting and packaging operations to Kerinci. This helps improve quality by not only shortening the time it takes to ready coffee for export but also by minimizing any exposure to excess heat and humidity, which is common in Medan, a main milling and shipping center.
The end result is undeniable: these coffees, which open doors to all manner of possibilities for coffee production in Indonesia, will challenge your ideas about Indonesian coffees.
Sumatra Gunung Tujuh Fully Washed
CPGP-3739-1: Black tea, lemonade, cherry, grapefruit | Score: 87
This Fully washed coffee is sure to make you reconsider what you think you know about Indonesian coffee. After being pulped, coffee is left overnight in buckets to ferment. In the morning, the mucilage is removed through agitation. To dry, parchment is first placed on patios and then transferred to raised beds. The beds are covered with large domes that protect parchment from rain or harsh sunlight.
Sumatra Gunung Tujuh Honey Wet Hulled
CPGP-3739-4: Purple grapes, blueberry, sweet, sugary | Score: 86.00
This unique Honey Wet hulled coffee combines the classic Indonesian flavors of Wet hulling with the iconic sweetness and fruitiness of Honey processing. Coffee is pulped and dried with the pulp to 25-40% moisture content. Then, it is wet hulled at a central mill and placed on raised beds sheltered by protective domes where it dries from another 15 days.
CPGP-3739-5: Summer berries, maple syrup, chocolate liqueur | Score: 86.25
This coffee is boozy yet refined with maple syrup sweetness. It is everything you are looking for in a Natural and more. For this lot, cherry is rigorously sorted before being dried in very thin layers on raised beds.