Earthy Sumatra

Sumatran coffee has distinctive flavour
By Kevin Steen

Equatorial islands enjoy a tropical climate perfect for growing coffee, but they are also the places most easily devastated by natural disasters.
Sri Lanka and Indonesia took the brunt of the 2004 tsunami created by an earthquake off the Sumatran coast. The tsunami devastated coastal regions of Asia and Africa.
This traumatic event caused coffee prices to go up in Indonesia and availability to go down. Even though the tsunami didn’t touch the higher altitude coffee-growing regions of Sumatra, the deaths of least 180,000 people created a labour shortage, while roads, bridges and infrastructure were destroyed. Organizations like USAid and many others have spent the last few years assisting farmer-based cooperatives to restore production of internationally certified, high-grade, organic Arabica coffees.
Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest producer of coffee (after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia), producing 370,732 metric tons of coffee in the 2004 calendar year. Experts wondered if Indonesian coffee prices would soar the following year because of the disaster, and they were right. By May of 2005, Mandheling arabica was worth $3,800-4,000 per ton, compared with $1,900-2,000 per ton the year before.
Sumatra’s two main growing regions are Mandheling around the high mountain basin of Lake Toba in North Sumatra province, and the Gayo Mountain Region of Lake Tawar near the northern tip of Sumatra in Aceh province. Sumatra’s peaks rise to 3,650 m (12,000 feet.) This elevation combined with heavy rainfall, high humidity, high temperatures and low winds, provides ideal growing conditions. More than 100 active and inactive volcanoes dot the Indonesian islands, their contents spilling down to enrich the soil in the plains and lowlands.
Sumatran coffee has a distinctive, pungent top note that is absent from other coffees. Cream and sugar doesn’t cover it up, either. That musty top note gives way to a rich, heavy-bodied flavor that lingers on the tongue. Our Down East version of organic, fair trade Sumatra is soft, and silky with low acidity, unlike coffee from neighboring Java (remember, the term acidity does not refer to actual acid content but to the sensation of brightness or sparkle on the tongue.) The darker it is roasted, the richer and more syrupy it becomes. Sumatra is ideal to savour after dinner, with or without dessert!
As I finish today’s column, I’m looking at my steaming hot mug of Sumatran coffee and wondering at the bravery of the people who grew it.
Kevin Steen is a true coffee lover and proprietor of Damascus Coffee House in Riverview. Do you have a coffee question for Kevin? Visit him at the shop, or call him at 855-4646.