Sumatra Mahdi Usati, Burni Telong, Wet Hull

ABOUT THIS COFFEE:

Sumatra is an island that is larger than Texas and Florida combined. In the middle of the island is a caldera called Lake Toba: the largest caldera from the largest volcanic explosion this world has ever seen. In this lake there is an island bigger than the country of Singapore. It is because of this lake that Sumatra has the largest rainfall seen by any coffee exporting country Ð the lake feeds clouds trapped in by the islandÕs 1500m tall mountains. Sumatra is old. When Marco Polo visited the islandÕs northern tip back in 1292, he found the local people speaking Sanskrit, one of the purest remaining forms of the ancient language. When the Dutch East Indian Trading Company came, Aceh (and later Java) became the first commercial coffee origins that the world had seen. There are over 52 languages over four major ethnic groups (Acehnese, Minangkabaunese, Batak and Mala) covering an area over 170,500 square miles around. Despite the size of the island, there is only one government-authorized port of export Ð the 15 million person city of Medan. To get here, coffee has to travel as far as 375 miles, over massive mountains and on roads that are mostly still mud. In the Northern region of the Island, just south of Danau Laut Tawar lies Bener Mariah where this coffee is grown.