Higher Grounds Trading Company

Roasting 100% Fair Trade and Organic Handcrafted Coffees

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Meet the Farmers: Sumatra

Sumatra is the one of the 17,000 islands that form Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago. Abundant rainfall, rich volcanic soil, and an equatorial climate are the essential ingredients in the very fine, exotic flavors of Sumatran coffees. Well-known in the United States for their rich spicy tones, Sumatran coffees have been a favorite of U.S. coffee aficionados for years.

Sumatra's Central Aceh region is known for its rich, earthy balanced coffees with complex aroma. The  Gayo Organic Coffee Farmers Association (PPKGO) is acclaimed for producing some of the best. Made up of more than 1,600 growers from 32 different communities, the cooperative is home to five different ethnicities: Gayo, Javanese, Acehnese, Padang and Batak. In a region torn apart from devastating natural disasters and on-going civil war, PPKGO has been a continuous multi-ethnic inspiration, as it uses its fair trade coffee premiums to build potable water systems, construct new roads, refurbish mosques, and the establishment of a credit union.

In Perspective

Colonization and increasing demand for coffee in Europe initiated the spread of coffee plantings throughout Sumatra in the 18th century. Today, it is grown around Lake Tawar in Aceh and the Lake Toba region. Indonesia is the world's third largest producer of coffee. But, only 10 percent of those beans are arabica and an even smaller portion are destined for the specialty coffee market.

A Quality Cup

Often you will see Sumatran coffee sold as Mandaleeing, which is actually an ethnic group and does not specify a specific region or growing altitude. As a result, some Sumatran Mandaleeings have been found to be inconsistent and unrepresentative of a particular region due to sourcing lots from more than one origin. Searching out a single origin Sumatran bean from one growing group--the Gayo Organic Coffee Farming Association (PPKGO)--we are able to continually offer a consistently high-quality Sumatran bean worthy of a designation as a classic Mandaleeing.