10 Best Sumatra Coffee Beans.

Do you love a dark, rich, fully flavored cup of coffee? If yes, you might want to try Sumatra coffee. The bonus is that it’s naturally low in acidity.

People either love or hate coffee from Sumatra. But what is Sumatra coffee? It has a flavor as exotic as where it’s from. Sumatra is an island in Indonesia. Indonesia is the fourth largest coffee producing country in the world.

Coffee from the island of Sumatra has a reputation for a unique, earthy flavor. It has a full body that holds up well to additives like cream and sugar. The taste comes in part from the unusual coffee processing technique called wet hulling. No one knows how the process developed. Sumatra is virtually the only place that processes the beans this way. We’ll talk more about the process later in the article.

A premium variety is Mandheling. This coffee has a distinctive flavor profile. In a study, three out of four blind tasters picked the Mandheling out of 42 samples!

Are you ready to walk on the wild side? Choose the best Sumatra coffee from our list below to expand your horizons.

Our Top Picks

Dutch colonialists first brought arabica coffee beans to Indonesia in the late 1600s. Although the plant isn’t native, the tropical climate, heavy rains, and high volcanic mountains were a perfect fit. Coffee plants flourished and exporters began a vigorous trade.

Once established, Indonesian was the largest coffee producer in the world. Unfortunately, all the plants were the same varietal. Coffee rust, a disease common to coffee, nearly wiped out all the plantations around the end of the 19th century. The lower elevations were especially devastated.

The Dutch colonial government decided to replant with the robusta coffee plant. It’s more resistant to disease, has more caffeine, but it doesn’t taste as good as arabica. Most of the coffee produced in Indonesia these days is robusta.

However, the plants in the highlands of Indonesia, such as in northern Sumatra, were not as affected by the coffee rust disease. Arabica plants grow well there, so they replanted with different arabica varietals. Today, northern Sumatra primarily produces arabica beans.

In Sumatra, coffee is mostly grown on small farms. In fact, most landholders only haver one or two acres to farm. These farms are banding together to form cooperatives. This not only helps the farmers, but it also ensures a better product. They can pool resources to upgrade their techniques.

History is interesting, but it’s all about taste. Sumatran has one of the most distinctive flavor profiles. It’s usually described as earthy and chocolatey. People who aren’t fans may call it mushroomy or funky. But you can’t deny its rich, smooth body. The wet hulling process that is used in Sumatra brings these properties.

Where Does Sumatra Coffee Come From?

Sumatra is the westernmost island of Indonesia. It’s also the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia.

It doesn’t get more tropical than Sumatra. The equator passes through the middle of the island. As of 2014, over 50 million people live on the island. However, away from the cities, Sumatra offers expanses of untouched areas. Sumatra is also known for its rare orangutans.

The island can be divided into three main parts: north, south, and west. The northern part of the island is mainly high volcanic mountains. That’s where the rich coffee comes from. It’s also the most popular for tourists.

Coffee in this region is grown by small landholders. As with most coffee grown in mountainous regions, workers harvest the coffee cherries by hand. Many of these farms have gotten Fair Trade, Organic, Rain Forrest, and other environmentally friendly certifications. This helps ensure that the farms will continue for many generations to come.

Sumatran Coffee: Is It Lower in Acid?

Acidity in coffee can be a good or a bad thing. It’s what gives the cup a brightness or liveliness. But acidity in coffee can also cause stomach problems. For that reason, many people who have digestive issues look for a low-acid coffee.

Many things affect a coffee’s acidity. The roast level has a huge impact. In general, a darker roast has a lower acidity.

Brewing method also contributes to acidity. The brewing method for the lowest acidity is cold brewing. For a hot drink, the French Press is also a low-acid technique. On the opposite end, espresso machines produce coffee with the highest acidity.

But a coffee’s origin has maybe the biggest impact. Coffee from Sumatra is known to be low acid. The low acidity is partly because of growing condition. But it may also be from the unique wet hulling process. If you’re looking for a low-acid coffee packed with flavor, Sumatra is a good place to start.

1. Women rule: Women make up about 80% of the labor force on coffee farms in Sumatra. Maybe more importantly, women are setting up female-led cooperatives in southeast Asia. Organizations outside the country are helping with training and loans. Not only does that lead to more gender equality, but it also often leads to better coffee!
2. Blue beans: The name for the wet hulling technique used in Sumatra is giling basah. Most of the coffee from Sumatra undergoes this method. That’s where the flavor of the Sumatra beans comes from. It also gives them an unusual bluish color before roasting.
3. World’s most expensive coffee: Kopi luwak is considered the world’s most expensive coffee. This coffee is exclusive to Sumatra. The beans are “processed” by passing through the digestive tract of a civet, a cat-like animal. Yes, it comes from animal poop. It’s not unusual to see it sell for $100/pound or more. It’s no wonder it did not make it to our list of best coffees to try.
4. “Mandheling” is not a region: Manheling refers to a tribe in northern Sumatra. In the early days of coffee exports, the tribe’s name was stamped on the bags. Importers mistook the name as the region where the coffee was from, and the name stuck.
5. Caffeine: Coffee from Sumatra is an arabica bean. It has about the same amount of caffeine as most coffees, around 100-120 mg per 12-ounce mug.
6. Coffee exported from Sumatra is almost exclusively Arabica. That contrasts to Indonesia as a whole, where robusta makes up about 80% of the total export.

Types of Sumatran Coffee

In the broadest sense, there are two types of coffee: arabica and robusta. You probably know that robusta is higher in caffeine but does not taste particularly good. Pretty much all specialty coffee is an arabica varietal.

Northern Sumatra grows arabica beans of a few different varietals. Originally, growers planted the Typica varietal. But much of that was wiped out by coffee leaf rust. However, you can find a mutated Typica Mandheling and Typica Lintong. Other common varietals on the island include Catimor, Bourbon, and Caturra.

When talking about sourcing for coffee, you’ll usually hear three different designations: Mandheling, Lintong, and Gayo. Mandheling is the most common. It comes from the North Sumatra province. It’s known for its earthy chocolate notes.

Lintong is also a growing region in North Sumatra. The coffee here is grown on a high plateau. It’s known for having a full flavor and clean aftertaste.

Gayo coffee comes from the Aceh province at the northern tip of Sumatra. Elevations for these coffees range from 4,500 to 6,000 feet. Most farmer employ shade-grown techniques. These beans are often more intensely flavored that from other regions. In addition to the typical Sumatra profile, Gayo beans commonly have hints of cardamom, peach, and caramel.

Processing Coffee From Sumatra: What Is Wet-Hulling?

It’s wet in Sumatra. Really wet. Rainfall in Sumatra is around 200 inches a year. Other coffee growing regions, such as Colombia, get less than half that. That’s why coffee growers in Sumatra had to develop a unique coffee processing. Almost every day would bring at least a little bit of rain.

As a result, it was near impossible for the small farmers to fully dry the coffee beans. They developed a unique hybrid process called wet hulling. It’s called giling basah in the local language.

To understand this process, it’s important to understand the parts of the coffee cherry. The innermost layer is the coffee bean, which is actually the seed. Surrounding that is the parchment, also called the hull. Around that is a thick, gluey layer called the mucilage. Then you have the fruit and skin.

Right after picking, the workers pulp the coffee cherries. They typically put the cherries in a hand-crank machine to remove the skin and the fruit. Then they put the beans into bags to ferment for a day or two. That helps break down the mucilage.

The next step is washing the beans to remove the mucilage. Now you’re left with the wet parchment coffee. They leave the beans for a few days to dry.

The problem in Sumatra is that things never get completely dry. In other regions they can dry the beans for weeks to about 11% moisture. So, the Sumatran process removes the parchment while it’s still wet. Wet parchment is more difficult to crack than dry. They hull the beans by hand, sometimes with a crude machine made just for this purpose.

After hulling, the beans dry again. Typically, they let the beans dry in the sun during the sun during the day. They are then bagged at night and put under cover. This process allows the beans to continue to ferment. When the hulled beans reach about 12% moisture, they are ready for export.

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