Takengon
Price £6.00 ( 350g )A very clean, heavy bodied and sweet lot of coffee from Sumatra. Warm earth and dried figs on the nose, and a notable absence of the musky tones typical of coffees from this region lead into a low acidity cup with walnut, cedar and herbal flavours.
Traceability is extremely difficult in this part of the world, but a lot of work is underway here as many specialty buyers feel there is still a lot of unfulfilled potential left in coffees from this region. This particular lot is sourced from several tiny growers in the semi- autonomous province of Ache in the northwest part of the Sumatra island, bought and collected by buyers from the mill in the town of Takengon. They buy the coffee as part-processed cherry, finishing the wet processing and drying at the central facility.
What makes this style of coffee appealing to so many also makes it quite divisive in the coffee industry. This lot is easily one of the best we’ve cupped this year from Sumatra. It has all the heaviness, sweetness and full body that we want and the cup is very clean. Lots of coffees from this region can suffer from a dirty finish, muddiness and a slight mustiness which is usually a result from the way that the coffees are only part processed after picking. This processing is also what gives the green coffee its distinct deeper green colour.
We’d recommend you brew this with water just a little further off the boil than usual. A couple of degrees cooler – around 90 to 92C when you pour – and this coffee is incredibly full bodied with no harsher notes in it, and the sweetness will really develop as it cools. This coffee will be great with most different methods of filtration, paper perhaps giving it the heaviest body.