SUMATRA ​ATU LINTANG

General Information

Origin: Sumatra, Indonesia
Region: Gayo, Aceh
Village: Atu Lintang
Cooperative: PT. Ihitiyeri Keti Ara
Cultivars: Gayo1(Tim Tim) & Ateng
Altitude: 1.400 - 1.600 masl
Process: Giling Basah (Wet Hulled)
Harvest: April - June 2019
Grade: 1 & Triple Picked
Warehouse: Barcelona & Santiago
Packaging: 60 Kg w/ GrainPro
Score: 86
Notes: Dark chocolate, cinamon, cloves, strawberry
Ikawa profile: http://bit.ly/2LVmm4R
Preparation: Both, Espresso and filter

TRACEABILITY

​Sumatra is an island located in the western end of Indonesia, between the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca. It is the 6th largest island in the world, and the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia (New Guinea and Borneo share borders with other countries). The Equator crosses Sumatra in its center, therefore the island's climate is tropical, very hot and extremely humid.

Aceh is a province of Sumatra. It is located at the north end of the island, and its capital is Banda Aceh. Its population has the highest Muslim population in all Indonesia. There are 10 indigenous ethnic groups living within the Aceh region. One of these groups is the Gayo, who occupy almost entirely the highest lands in the province (Aceg Tengah). This tribe has a population of approx. of 330,000 people.

The Dutch violently occupied this area between 1904 and 1942, after "winning" the "Aceh War" between 1873 and 1904. It was during this period that the Gayonese developed an economy based on intercropping cultivation of fruits and/or vegetables with coffee. Today there are a large number of small coffee farmers in the area of ​​Aceh Tengah, whose farms have an average size of half an hectare, for this reason they should be organized into groups and cooperatives.

In the specific case of Atu Lintang, a total of 298 coffee farmers have been united from five different farmer groups: Sido Mulyo I, Sido Mulyo II, Damar mulyo, Gayo Murni, KalaTupis.

The lot was processed entirely at the Jagong Mill, which is probably the first and most famous Sumatran washing station. Located in the highest cultivable lands (1,400 to 1,600 masl) of Sumatra, about 1 hour west of Lake Tawar, this was the first place built for farmers to deliver their cherries on the same day of the harvest, so they can process it uniformly from start to finish in one place. Something unique for the traditional processing method of the island, where each coffee grower, collect, pulp, ferment and wash their production on their own farm, then deliver the wet parchment to the cooperative, where the drying stage and wet hulling begins.

Irham Junus is the operator of the Jagong Mill, and with his daughter Ina, they have focused their work on training coffee farmers to improve harvest standards. The selective picking of only ripe cherries is still a rare sight in Sumatra. The Junus family has full control of the processing, drying and classification of the lots, until the final export stage. 

HISTORY OF INDONESIAN COFFEE

The history of coffee in Indonesia, as in many others producing countries around the world, begins with tales of colonialism, slavery, monopoly and multinational corporations (Yes! The first ones of modern history were set in the early 17th century).

In the year 1602 the Dutch government established the “Dutch East India Company” (VOC; Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie) as a chartered company and granted it a 21-year monopoly on the Dutch spice trade. This was the first model of what we consider today a multinational corporation.

In the year 1616 the Dutch East India Company started with coffee trading in Mocha (Yemen), and during the first half of the 17th century, they only traded coffee in the Arab world and Asia, because there was no demand for coffee in Europe at that time.

During the late 17th century, coffeehouses spread all over Europe and the Dutch, English and French started to trade coffee from different Arab ports. The Arabs had forbidden the trade coffee in fertile beans or plants, of course, they wanted to keep their monopoly, but when coffee became very popular in Europe around the 1690, and political problems in the Arab countries threatened coffee imports, different European countries tried to get coffee plants or seedlings for trading purposes.

The race to make off with some live coffee trees or beans was eventually won by the Dutch. They obtained the coffee plants most likely in Malabar (India), where the Dutch East India Company ruled.

The coffee plants were introduced in Batavia (today Jakarta) Indonesia in 1696. In 1711 the first coffee exports were shipped from Java to Europe. The first coffee shipment was around 450 kg. Ten years later the export had already grown to 60.000 kg.

Originally coffee was cultivated only in Java, but in 1870, the Dutch expanded growing areas of Arabica to Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi and Timor. In northern Sumatra, coffee was first cultivated near Lake Toba in 1888; and then in the Mountains of Gayo, near lake Tawar, by 1924.​

VARIETIES OF INDONESIA

​"Coffea arabica, which is indigenous to Ethiopia, was first transported from its origin to neighboring Yemen, and from Yemen was transported all over the world. The coffees that we call Typicas today come from plants that came from Yemen and were brought to Java and the outlying islands by the Dutch, and possibly through the mythical Indian Sufi Baba Budan.

The coffees we call Bourbon today, come from the plants transported to the island of Bourbon (now Reunion Island) by the French. Each of these epic journeys may have involved a very small number of plants or coffee seeds. "(www.scaa.org)

At the beginning of the 20th century, all Arabica coffee plants were devastated by Leaf Rust Disease (CLR). Coffea Canephora (Robusta) plants were then used to replace Arabica because they had greater resistance to CLR. However, this was not without problems, as cupping results were somewhat unpleasant compared to Arabica results. Most of the Typica varieties of Indonesia were lost to CLR disease, although, some Typica plants that had been grown in the northern highlands of Sumatra survived, and can still be found today growing there.

In the 1920s, Timor Hybrid (HdT), a natural cross between Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora (Arabica and Robusta) was found on the island of Timor. HdT has genes that are resistant to CLR, nematodes and coffee berry disease (CBD). The discovery of HdT played an important role in the development of modern varieties and coffee research. Based on the historical origin of the Coffea Arabica cultivars, the Typica and Bourbon varieties showed important differences. The young leaves of the plant bud are bronze for the cultivars of Typica or dominant origin, and light green for cultivars of Bourbon origin or with that dominant gene.

The varieties of Coffea Arabica that we can find today in the Gayo highlands are: Bergendal, Sidikalang, Rambung, Lines - S, USDA, Catimor Jaluk, Ateng Super, BP 542, C - 50, among others. But recommended by the local government for its high productivity and cup quality are: Gayo-1, Gayo-2 and P-88.

GILING BASAH PROCESS

ATU LINTANG VILLAGE LOCATION

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