Why is Giling Basah the king of Indonesia? And other local terms you should know.

If you have been in the speciality coffee industry for any length of time, you have probably heard the name Giling Basah. You may also have heard other names, such as Sumatra, Gayo or Kopi Luwak. Certainly, all these terms belong to the local Indonesian language, Bahasa. And they are also already part of the language of the coffee industry, so you should understand what they mean.

​Giling Basah in the local language, Bahasa Indonesian, means wet hulled. It refers to the local way of processing coffee, and more specifically to the moment when the parchment is removed from the green coffee. As we know, coffee processing aims to clean the green coffee from all the protective layers, mucilage, pulp and fruit that protect it. This wet hulling process is very particular, because it removes the parchment from the green coffee when it is still wet, i.e., at 45-50 % humidity. This would be seen as an aberration anywhere else in the world.

​Sumatra, the largest single island belonging only to Indonesia, is where the country's largest coffee production is concentrated. Robusta coffee is mainly produced in the south of the island, but in the north, there is a region of acceptable altitude (1,600 metres above sea level) that gathers the production of Arabica and the best coffees in the country come from this area, called Gayo. Here the local coffee growers and producers, whose ethnic group is Gayoneses, are very friendly, hard-working and humble people, who produce also washed, natural, honey coffees, experimental fermentations (one of them very interesting called "winey"), and the infamous Kopi Luwak, where the coffee cherry is eaten by a wild civet, the fermentation occurs in its intestines and then it defecates the beans ready to dry.
 
But the processing method that in our opinion is the king, and steals the best sensory evaluations in Indonesia, is Giling Basah. Because it was developed in Sumatra, because it is used only in Sumatra and because we believe that due to the varieties, terroir and environmental conditions of the island, it is the process that obtains the greatest potential and the best organoleptic characteristics of the coffees produced here. Giling Basah is the king of Sumatra and it is coming to your roastery.
 
Enjoy your Sumatran coffee!