Sumatra, Putra Gayo Mill, Aceh

Wild, fun trip to flavor town(as Rob Hoos would say)!! Blueberry notes, winey nuisance, high acidity, and Indonesian origin make this a wickedly unique offering! 

We Taste: Blueberry Wine, blackberry, ruby port, orange, almond, chocolate. 

Origin: Sumatra

Region:  Aceh Tengeh & Beher Meriah Aceh

Farm/Washing Station/Mill- Putra Gayo Mill

Variety: Ateng, Bor Bor, Catimor, & Timor

Altitude: 1400 - 1650 masl

Process Method: Anerobic Natural 

Roast level: Origin

Roasting Notes: This is another first for Xozio. Our first Sumatran and Indonesian. This being an Anaerobic natural it is a little odd to roast. Luckily I have a good amount of experience roasting these types of greens. The big difference is the color of the green(super mottled and not a lot of green) and the quiet lack of first crack. So calling both phase changes is difficult. Having a good understanding of your roast machine and when phase changes generally happen at temperature will be very helpful! So for this green, I started with the Colombia Manos Juntas profile. My previous Anaerobic natural coffee I developed last winter. This profile didn't need much tweaking. Shortened mid phase slightly and dropped at a lower temperature(4 degree's). To share this Profile is-5:00 GY, 8:30 1st C, 1:45 development and 13 degree's from crack is drop

Sourcing Notes: I have a good size Natural Anaerobic customer base. This allows me to source a couple unique offerings a years in this type. I've also always been a huge Sumatra fan, as I've traveled there two times for coffee. I've been focused on bringing in a nice Indonesia also. So when this offering appeared on the @origin list. I jumped and quickly contracted a bag SASNAS. It was described as lots of Blueberry notes!!! Yay! Once it arrived I sample roasted and cupped. I was blown away by the cupping!!! It was super clean offering with high acidity and yummy berry forward Anaerobic notes. Easy decision!  

Coffee Info/Story: FIwannitosa Putra is the owner of Putra Gayo, a mill and farm serving two sub-regions within Aceh, Sumatra. Their farm covers 250 hectares of land with around 275,000 coffee trees of Gayo 1, 2, and 3. Amongst the coffee, many shade trees are grown like Lamtoro, Banana, Orange, Avocado, and Jackfruit trees. Iwannitosa specializes in both washed and natural coffees, as opposed to the common Sumatra wet-hulled. Washed coffees are fermented for 10-12 hours, and dried for about 10 days. Natural process coffees dry ferment for 10-12 hours, and then dry for 30 days.

Micro-lots from Sumatra are most commonly traceable to the mill level, but occasionally traceable to the producer. Because of the generally small size of farms in Sumatra, most producers' coffee is blended together with that of other smallholders. Micro-lot coffees not only have more traceability than those blended lots, but also achieve the highest quality and are rewarded with the highest prices.

Aceh, in northern Sumatra, is an incredible region for coffee production. The average farm is one hectare, 80% of producers within northern Sumatra are women, and 95% of producers are smallholders. The region is diverse, geographically speaking. It is surrounded by beaches with a swampy inland, and the Barisan Mountains make up the inner two-thirds of the area. Coffee is grown on this volcanic mountain amongst the rainforest. One of the notable features of this area is Lake Taboa, the largest volcanic lake in the world.