print page

close window

Sumatra

These coffees are full and rich in body, earthy, medium flavor with low acidity and smoothness unmatched by other origins.

Altitude: between 1500 and 2000 meters

History

The Arabica’s are grown now in the northern province of Sumatra Banda Aceh around Lake Takengon. This is the main area right now where the unwashed Sumatra Arabica and Mandheling is grown. This coffee is cultivated by small farmers with an average of 1,5 Hectares of land yielding around 10 (60 kg) bags per Hectare. The trees are mainly old with probably an average of around the 15 years. The tree variety is enormous and some trees are of the ‘Berg en Dal’ variety. This is Dutch for ‘mountain and valley’ and was probably one of the first trees introduced.

The main part of the coffee used to be grown around the southern part of Lake Toba and in the Lintung District. However a tribe called the Mandhelings took the coffee from these parts more North to where the coffee is grown now around lake Takengon. Therefore the Mandheling coffee originates from the Lintung trees however have found their own specific growing area.

Main problems facing the coffee production around Takengon is the poor tree and farm husbandry, bad pruning, no (hardly non) fertilizers, and hardly no irrigation. The education of the farmers consist from information passed on from generation to generation and every effort from the Indonesian government for improvement and to stimulate production are a failure. An example is the fight against deforestation and erosion. The government supplied the farmers with grass seeds to avoid the erosion and goats to maintain the grass. Three months later the seeds were sold in the local market and the goat used for a nice village B.Q.

The processing of the Mandheling or Sumatra Arabica is similar. After picking the cherries the coffee is fresh cherries are kept in a basket in a stream for a night. The next 1 or 2 days the cherries are sun dried after which they are pulped by the local village hulling station, some  mounted on a back of a small pick-up. The farmers dry again for a couple of days after which the coffee is hulled by a hulling station. The coffee is dried after which it is sold to the local trader who sells the coffee to the exporters in Medan or to other traders.

The exporters select the coffee in 4 grades being Grade 3, 2 and 1 and grade 1 Super Fancy. The Grade 3 and 2 are machine processed. The Grade 1 and Super Fancy are by customers demand twice or triple picked. The Super Fancy’s are brushed coffees where they take of the silver skin. We at Andira belief a triple picked coffee can really pass a test of defects and therefore cup quality.