Grade 1: Royale, Sumatra

COUNTRY: Indonesia.

REGION: Atu Lintang, Aceh, Sumatra.

GROWER: Smallholder farmers organized around PT. Ihtiyeri Keti Ara (PT. IKA)

VARIETY: Bourbon, Catimor, and Typica.

ALTITUDE:1500 – 1600 masl.

SOIL:Volcanic loam

PROCESS: Semi-washed and wet hulled after pulping, then dried in the sun.

Regional details

Tradition runs deep in the Central Aceh regency on the island of Sumatra, renowned for cup profiles and the classic Indonesian style of coffee cultivation and processing.  Coffee is cultivated and harvested from farms that average less than 3 acres in size.  Producers belong to the Gayonese ethnic group and maintain a traditional village lifestyle that includes houses that resemble ships. Seventy percent of the producers are women who rely on coffee income to support their families.

Processing Details

Each producer carefully sorts their harvested cherries and delivers them to a centralized mill to be depulped  and fermented overnight. Then the coffee is washed and laid out on patios to shed the excess water from the parchment covered beans.  Next the coffee takes a detour from the conventional path of processing in other origins, wherein, the coffee parchment is removed while the coffee still has a high moisture content.  This wet-hulling process, called Giling Basah in the Indonesian language, leaves the coffee bean exposed while drying on patios to a moisture percentage acceptable for export.  This Indonesian processing method gives the bean its unique bluish color and the hallmark Indonesian profile.

Exporting Details

With Indonesian coffees, half the battle is overcoming logistical challenges like rugged roads and unpredictable torrents of rain.  PT. Ihtiyeri Keti Ara (PT. IKA), with more than 900 coffee producing partners, takes on an important role of organizing local warehouses and transportation so farmers can overcome these challenges.  PT. IKA purchases cherries and carries out the wet hulling process, and subsequent drying.  The dry-mill processing and preparation for export is also done by PT. IKA to swiftly bring the coffee to the international market, ensuring consistent quality control and greater earnings for farmers.