Sumatra Coffee

Sumatra coffee is unique and the Mandheling is viewed by some as one of the best coffees available.

Coffee has a history as rich as the brew itself, dating back to thousands of years ago when the coffee plants or so it is believed, came from the Horn of Africa on the shores of the red sea.

At the beginning, coffee beans were not used as a beverage, they were taken as a food. It wasn't until the 11th century that coffee was first developed into a hot drink.

An amusing story, whether true or not, is about a goat herder whose goats became friskier after eating red cherries from a wild coffee shrub. He ate some of the berries himself and was delighted by the invigorating effects.

There are so many brands of coffee today to suit everyone's taste buds it is hard to define sometimes which the best coffee is.

Sumatra coffee comes from probably one of the most distinctive of all coffee origins. This coffee attracts drinkers who find the powerful acidy coffees of Central America and Kenya too high pitched, and coffee from Brazil, Mexico and Konas too delicate.

Lots of people prefer the full bodied Sumatra coffee, low toned and elegantly comfortable. This doesn't depend on acidity, rather on weight and depth.

This was a favorite of the innovative coffee man, Alfred Peet, who originated this slow dark roast style single handedly, which is now standard on the West Coast.

Sumatra is suited to anchor these rugged, deep, pungent blends that roasters favor on the West Coast. This has probably replaced the smoother, less powerful blends of Brazil.

Many years ago, people were amazed at how splendid unblended coffees tasted.

This extraordinary Sumatra was imported over thirty years ago by Erna Knutsen, who was a founding member of the specialty coffee movement.

The Sumatra as well as the Kenya amazed many people with its wonderful taste. There has been on the market some that are not as gentle to the taste buds; this may be due to the popularity of Sumatras, or it may be unreliable exporters not taking care just to meet demands.

There was a time when people worried about the coffee impact with the forest fires of Indonesia, with huge blankets of smoke bellowing over Sumatra.

Thankfully, this did not spoil anything as twelve coffees in the cupping ranged from good to outstanding, and not to forget the exciting range of the basso Sumatra theme.

It is the roasting that plays a huge part in the taste; the sugar in the bean should be caramelized rather than burnt.

Many assume that coffee tastes different because they have been grown in different soils and climates, or maybe produced by botanical varieties of coffea Arabica, these assumptions may be true.

It should not be overlooked how coffee beans are processed when they are stripped of their fruit and dried, this has a profound effect as to how coffee tastes.

Sumatran coffees fine taste probably comes from the unorthodox methods the Sumatrans use when removing fruit from the coffee to dry it, than characteristics imparted by climate, soil and botany.

Gayo Mountain washed coffee has a medium body and ordinary flavor to taste, this may be due to the large scale wash.

While the tawny beaned Mandhelings heavy bodied taste could be due to the more traditional method of dried and processed.

It was assumed there was only two ways to process coffee; the wet or washed method, this means removing the bean carefully step by step before drying, or the dry method of leaving the seeds or beans inside the fruit till they dry.

In fact there are many other processes used and almost all of them will affect the flavor. This surprised many in the specialty coffee business in the early days.

You may wonder what happens to Sumatra coffee once the skins are removed from the fruit before the bean is dried. Nearly all of the small Sumatra farmers use a simple method they have probably used for years using the backyard wash method.

Once they have removed the skins using their simple homemade machines, they ferment the beans overnight with no added water. They then wash off the ferment-loosened fruit pulp in water from the creek or well, all this is done before putting the coffee out to dry.

Sumatra coffee is traditionally processed from start to finish, meaning their skins have been removed (pulped), before the next three stages.

Dry fermented and hand washed or dry fermented and rubbed clean of pulp or lastly with the pulp still attached dried, any dried residue remaining rubbed clean.

Because the crops are still grown in the time-honored ways, it won't be difficult to find Sumatra coffee that is authentically organic.