Indonesia Gayo Highlands

Description

Region: Aceh
Varietal: Caturra, Heirloom, Sigarar Utang
Process: Wet-hulled

The Gayo Highlands sit in the central highlands of Aceh province, at the northern tip of Sumatra, around Lake Laut Tawar and the town of Takengon. It is one of the most established coffee regions in Indonesia, with farms tucked into dense, mixed tropical forest rather than open plantation rows. Rain and mist are near constant through much of the year, and the soil stays rich and layered with organic matter as a result. This lot grows between 1,200 and 1,600 metres across that landscape.

This lot is wet-hulled, known locally as giling basah, the processing method that gives most Sumatran coffee its low acidity and heavy body. Cherry is pulped and left to ferment briefly, then the wet parchment is hulled at a much higher moisture content than usual, well before the bean has fully dried. The naked bean finishes drying afterward, a step built for a wet climate where coffee would otherwise struggle to dry inside parchment, and it is what gives this coffee its dense, herbal, low-acid character.