Aged coffees are exotic, and might be a bit of an acquired taste. The first sip of an aged coffee might come as a shock, until your taste buds adapt themselves to the extreme flavors: intense, deep, savory, woody, syrupy, rustic! Aged coffees from Indonesia have a long history; in the age of sail-powered marine transportation, everything arrived on US shores as aged coffee! Over time in the ship's hold, the coffee turned color, and became seasoned with a host of flavors, some desirable and some certainly not. Now coffee is specially aged to transform the flavors, in fact this lot was aged 3 years in Singapore in stainless steel vats, not in jute bags. For this and many other reasons, aged coffee is not just old, past-crop coffee. It is monitored during aging, regularly rotated and cupped for flavor as time goes by. This is a special aged lot, a peaberry preparation of the Blue Batak Lintong-area coffee that we stock at Sweet Maria's. 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. Aged coffees are well-suited to darker roast levels, and I must say I do not find the City roast of this coffee very agreeable. It needs the intense and brooding weight of darker roasting to pair the origin flavors of the bean in this case. It also needs to rest! Aged coffees improve greatly after 3-4 days out of the roaster. The ground coffee has an unusual fragrance; barley malt, hickory wood, caramel, rustic chocolate and spice. The wet aroma is, er, "challenging" on aged coffees. It has an foresty note that borders on swampy, but in the dark roast a deep caramelized sugar scent comes through with rum raisin pudding. The cup is so intense ... you need time to recover from the first sip. Immediately the coffee seems peppery, hot, with some strong charry notes, but they fade into dark syrupy sweetness. Savory-sweet balance comes through, food flavors not found in coffee, dark liquor syrupy notes, herb and mint, clove, aromatic woody tastes, strawberry sauce, spiced rum ... it's all there, and more. The aftertaste is where this coffee is so complex, and I can literally sit for 5 or ten minutes after the coffee is off my palate, and sense different complex arrangements of flavor. This coffee is unique too because many flavors are sapid but difficult to pin down, and many occur on the palate, in the range between bittering and savory, rather than volitile aromas that are sensed in the olfactory. It's an interesting experience, this Aged Tarbarita Peaberry, and one you might find infinitely pleasing ... or maybe not. Try a small amount and find out.

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 preparation, 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 cookie/butterscotch sweetness paired with malty grain notes. There are hints of mild tobacco and spice (clove, pepper). The sweetness reminds me of chicory root and molasses, a rustic sweet flavor. There is latent fruit hiding behind chocolate in the finish, papaya-mango. 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.

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 altitude 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 special preparation, without the usual split beans, broken pieces and crud found in standard Sumatras. It is carefully density sorted and triple-hand-sorted. And since my latest obsession is inspecting coffee under ultraviolet light while grading them, this lot still shows the normal wet-hulled issues, but is infinitely better than so-called Grade 1 Mandhelings and the like. The dry fragrance has chocolate and caramel biscuit tones, but with a slight herbal and graham cracker graininess in the light roast. Lintongs have a reputation for herbal or herbacious notes; I would say Dolok Sanggul classifies as a Lintong in this respect, but is less herbal than most Lintong coffees. Surprising fruits come forward in the wet aroma, even a momentary whiff of citrus, dried plum and dried fig. It's got great rustic sweetness, aromatic tree bark, cinnamon stick, black tea, and mulling spice in the finish. Light roasts have a malty roast taste, thyme herb, fading to chocolate with plum/prune fruit. FC roast level is more sagey, with dark malt syrup, and a thick slab of fruity chocolate flavor. The body is a bit heavier and more syrupy than the Onan Ganjang sister lot, even though they come from areas that are very close to each other. As mentioned, it is also has less of the herbal notes in the cup flavor than 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! Another roast note: IMO many roasters over-roast Sumatras looking for surface color similar to other origins. They don't color the same as other origins, so you might end up darker than your target quite easily. Lighter Sumatra roasts can actually be more intense!

What is a Mandheling, anyway? 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 called Dagang Sepakat Indah, in Bener Meriah, Aceh district. With the main geographic feature being Lake Takengon, we use that motif. And it has "classic" Sumatra character, that reverberant, deep-toned, mildly earthy, low acid heavy body cup. This is distinct from the Lintong area coffee we offer, which are generally more herbal in flavor. We like Aceh coffees for their balance, and the fact they work very well in espresso. (Lintongs have an herbal note that can be odd in espresso). And this coffee is not a general, pooled lot from wherever in Aceh the local middlemen can get coffee for cheap. It's from a specific farmer group in the highlands of Bener Meriah, and is also a "triple pick" preparation at the mill, hand sorting of this coffee to achieve this beautiful jade-green uniformity. What I have also found consistently here is a great flavor profile; aggressive, yet with a foresty sweetness with positive earthy hints. The fragrance from the dry grounds has semi-sweet chocolate roast tones (FC+) with woody tree bark 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, rustic caramel notes. There is black pepper in the finish, as well as earthy tones, and a bit of truffles. There are also muted ripe fruits; plum-prune, fig. Favors are savory, and much more is sensed on the palate, on the tongue, then in the olfactory, aromatically. Also, a coffee with this flavor profile doesn't chart well on a cupping form, hence the strong use of the Cupper's Correction. While Full City roast levels give the known Sumatra flavor profile, I recommend experimenting with some City=City+ roasts here. A good Sumatra can take a lighter roast, and will show sweetness (quite caramelly in this coffee) whereas a not-so-good coffee will reveal musty notes. I am quite sure you will find this special lot works well throughout the roast range!