The Story Behind Sumatra Coffee's Origin and Characteristics

FrontStreet Coffee's Introduction to Sumatra Coffee Beans

The History of Sumatra Coffee

Coffee was introduced to the Indonesian islands by the Dutch in the 16th century and first exported by the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century. The Dutch generally operated large plantations, and under colonial rule workers and local people suffered both economically and politically. In the 1860 novel "Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company," the Dutch trading company laid out the many ways the government and landlords abused and oppressed the Indonesian people. Hunger and poverty were especially common among coffee workers and indigenous communities in Sumatra and Java.

In the 1860s and 1870s, outbreaks of coffee leaf rust devastated Indonesia's coffee market and pushed the Dutch to abandon many estates. As the big plantations collapsed, workers took over small plots and eventually replanted them with Robusta and a range of disease-resistant Arabica hybrids. That redistribution of land established the dominance of smallholders on the islands, a pattern that continues to this day. Overall, Indonesia is currently the world's fourth-largest coffee-producing country.

Sumatra coffee is renowned worldwide for its distinctive herbal and woody flavor profile. Part of this comes from the mix of varieties planted and the local climate; part of it comes from a special processing method called wet-hulling, known locally as Giling Basah, which gives these coffees many of their unique qualities.

Typica was the first variety planted in Java and Sumatra, but leaf rust all but wiped it out more than a century ago. Even so, some local Typica can still be found in the high-altitude areas of Sumatra.

In Indonesia, some of the most commercially viable Arabica varieties do carry a little Robusta genetics, which makes them more disease-resistant. This is true of both Catimor and Hibrido de Timor.

Linie S is another widely distributed disease-resistant variety, a natural mutation of Liberica and Bourbon that originated in India.

In the late 1920s, a batch of Ethiopian coffee was also brought to Sumatra and is still cultivated there today. These are known as Abyssinia and Rambung.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To understand why Sumatra tastes the way it does, start with the processing. FrontStreet Indonesia Lintong Mandheling comes from the Lake Toba region of the Lintong growing area and is wet-hulled, then roasted medium-dark. That gives it the classic Mandheling profile: low acidity, a thick body, and generous caramel, dark chocolate and toast aromas with a long, sweet finish.

If you want the highest expression of the style, FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is produced by the PWN company under a very strict standard - lots screened to a large size with fewer than three defective beans per 300 g sample, then hand-sorted to remove faults almost entirely. The result is a cleaner, sweeter cup with sandalwood, herbal, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel and dark chocolate notes.

And for those who want that wild, full-bodied character in milk drinks, FrontStreet Classic Blend, built on the traditional Mamba recipe, adds a little medium-dark Mandheling to a Brazilian base, boosting body with sandalwood, herbal and spice accents - ideal for a latte or a layered Dirty.