Lintong coffees are from Sumatra, the island that is politically and geographically part of Indonesia. Lintong Nihota is the town that has become synonymous with the entire southern part of Lake Toba area. Lake Toba defines the landscape of the area, the largest volcanic crater lake in the world, and the result of the largest volcanic event on earth in the last 25 million years! It is huge, and the coffees from the north and eastern shores are quite different from the Lintong coffees. Lintong coffees are farmed by the Batak peoples that are the indigenous tribe that works the coffee in this area. We offer the top grade, specially- prepared Lintong coffees as Blue Batak in honor of the Toba Batak people. Blue Batak is a near-zero defect prepartion, without the usual split beans, broken pieces and crud found in standard Sumatras. It is carefully density sorted and triple-hand-sorted. A roast note: It might go against common sense, but I find Sumatras like this more complex in the lighter roasts than in the usual darker roasts they receive. The main reason is that many commercial roasters use color and surface texture as indicators of roast level. They roast coffee until the bean looks attractive. With a Sumatra like this, you will mostly likely hit 2nd crack at the point where the surface texture and variegated bean color evens out, and (I think) you may have gone too far at that point. Ignore appearance, try a lighter roast. The aromatics are pungent and the cup is complex at City+ roast, with herbal tones, and caramel/butterscotch sweetness paired with malty grain notes. There are hints of tobacco and spice (clove, pepper). The sweetness reminds me of chicory root and molasses. There is latent fruit hiding behind chocolate in the finish. And there is tons of thick, chocolate roast flavor as well. The body is huge, oily, waxy. Of course, I roasted this to FC, FC+ and Vienna and it's a great cup across the board, turning more to bass-note flavors and a "noir" cup profile at FC+. But it was my lightest roast, C+, that was the most complex. Give it a try.



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Dolok Sanggul is a city within the coffee growing area we refer to as Lintong. Lintong Nihota is the town that has become synonymous with the entire southern part of Lake Toba area most of the coffee from the southern shores are sold as such. Lake Toba defines the landscape of the area, the largest volcanic crater lake in the world, and the result of the largest volcanic event on earth in the last 25 million years! It is huge, and the coffees from the north and eastern shores are quite different from the Lintong coffees. Dolok Sanggul is a local marketplace for coffees from the area; once a week the farmers gather to sell their parchment coffee to trusted vendors, who "collect" it on behalf of specific mills, or as freelancers. The mill we work with has certain farmers from higher altiitude areas, and who produce a very clean, high-quality parchment coffee. That's part of the reason this has great cup character ... the other is special milling and sorting practices. We offer the top grade, specially- prepared Lintong coffees as Blue Batak in honor of the Toba Batak people. Blue Batak is a near-zero defect preparation, without the usual split beans, broken pieces and crud found in standard Sumatras. It is carefully density sorted and triple-hand-sorted. The dry fragrance has chocolate and caramel biscuit tones, but with a slight earthy and graham cracker graininess. Surprising fruits come forward in the wet aroma, even a momentary whiff of citrus, pineapple, dried plum, fig. It's got great rustic sweetness, aromatic tree bark, cinnamon stick, black tea, and mulling spice in the finish. The body is a bit lighter than the Onan Ganjang micro-lot we have as a sister lot, even though they come from areas that are very close to each other. It also has less of the herbal notes found in other Lintong coffees, which I think makes it a better choice for use in espresso. In fact, the shots I have made from Dolok Sanggul have been really fantastic, like no other Sumatra I can think of ... but only when rested 5 days or more after roasting. It needs rest!

This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.

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Formerly offered as Classic Mandheling, the name seems less suited to any coffee from Sumatra these days. Why? Mandheling has been been loosely applied to any coffee from North Sumatra or Aceh district, but the actual Mandheling district has little coffee remaining but some low-land robusta. Mandheling was a historical name. We can respect that, but we like to keep the romance in check, and prefer some real-world specifics. Indeed, this is a special coffee from a small area near Takengon, the city on the shores of Lake Tawar in the Gayo area of Aceh. And it has "classic" Sumatra character, that reverberant, deep-toned, mildly earthy, low acid heavy body cup. This sub region has unique plant material too; our classic comes from trees that predominately have large cherries, resulting in 18-19 screen green coffee. This coffee is grown by smallholder farmers and when I visited there it was clear that the trees were unique in form and the very large cherries. Whether this is a TimTim, Ateng or Djember cultivar is unknown at this point, but I walked the farms with Andy Irham and his father, local Takengon coffee millers who source this lot for us, and they believe this is a local mutation of old seedstock from the early days of coffee in the Gayo area. What I have found consistently is a great flavor profile; aggressive, yet with a foresty sweetness too, hints of earth, but not dirty or musty. The fragrance from the dry grounds has semi-sweet chocolate roast tones (FC+) with woody tree bark hints and darkly caramelized sugar sweetness. Adding water, the tenor-to-bass range of the cup is clear, reiterating what we find in the dry fragrance, with the addition of a deep sandalwood aromatic, brown bread, bran muffin, and molasses. Low acidity means the cup has less dimension and perceived complexity ... but that's what a Sumatra is all about as well; heavy body, chocolate, a coffee profile painted in earth-shades. While the cup showcases pleasing bitterness over sweetness, there is clear presence of both; dark brown sugar, baker's chocolate, dark fig. There is a touch of black pepper in the finish, as well as earthy tones, and a bit of truffles. There are also muted ripe fruits; plum-prune, fig. Of course, a coffee with this flavor profile doesn't chart well on a cupping form, hence the strong use of the Cupper's Correction.



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