Sumatra Aged Gayo - 5 Year Vintage

Many Sumatra farmers have been gravely affected by the recent typhoons, isolated in a rural areas without critical supplies, like food, water, and fuel. Read more about the current efforts to fly in aid here, where you can also donate to help bring supplies to Sumatran coffee communities.

This crop of aged Sumatran coffee comes from coffee collectors working around the greater Aceh region. Collectors are local intermediaries who often are the linchpin connecting farmers to the market. A lot rides on the long-standing relationships between collectors and farmers, and the collector is really the key person to determine coffee quality. 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 a dark color, and became seasoned with a host of flavors, some desirable and some certainly not. It's no surprise that the time it took to get from port to port increased the coffee's value. At that time Indonesian coffee fetched upwards to 27 cents per Lb, whereas Central and South American coffees cost around 3 cents. Now coffee is intentionally aged to transform the flavors - this lot was aged for 5 long years after wet hulling in a controlled manner. The coffee is typically stored in jute bags and stacked with pallets in between for aeration. Every few months, it will be rotated, often emptying from the bags onto the floor, and repackaging again to try and maintain consistency. 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 lot emulates this historic processing method, resulting in a truly unique, and intense Indonesian coffee profile. We have come across the occasiona stone in the green coffee, which is common from Indonesia. Keep an eye out for them, especially post roast where they are very noticable. 

Check out our roasting tips for aged coffee.