Sumatra Takengon Mandheling
One Real 16oz. Pound
For lovers of the infamous Sumatra Mandheling, no other coffee compares. Nothing comes close. For some people, Sumatra is the quintessential "daily driver," delivering the classic cup of earthy, syrupy, spicy sweetness that lovers of Indonesian coffees crave!
Sumatra’s small farmers process coffee in a complicated way. Notably, the processing is typically not overseen by a single individual or team; instead, coffee moves task by task through different parties before reaching its final, thoroughly dried state.
Coffee farms tend to average 0.5-2 hectares each. Every coffee village has a collector (or more) who receives fresh-picked coffee cherries or humid parchment for daily processing.
Once a batch of coffee has been depulped, fermented overnight, washed clean, and then quickly sun-dried to the touch, each collector delivers the batch to a central miller.
It is at the mill where the coffee is mechanically hulled of its parchment, leaving behind just the soft, high-moisture coffee bean (thus earning the term “wet-hulled”), all of which is spread out on large patios to continue drying.
AROMA: Vibrant, Sweet, Fresh Earth, Umami
BODY: Full, Smooth, Juicy, Velvety, Dark, Dark Chocolate
FINISH: LOW Acid, Hint of Sweetness
One Real 16oz. Pound
About this Coffee
GROWER: Smallholder farmers across Northern Sumatra & Aceh
REGION: Northern Sumatra and Aceh Provinces, Sumatra, Indonesia
ALTITUDE: 1200 – 1700 meters above sea level
PROCESS: Wet hulled and dried in the sun
VARIETY: Local typica and catimor cultivars
HARVEST: October - January | April - August
SOIL: Volcanic loam
CERTIFICATION: Conventional
Most coffee blends labeled “Mandheling” tend to be drawn from various local parchment collectors across two central coffee-producing provinces, both fortified with volcanic soils: Aceh and North Sumatra.
Aceh province (pronounced AH-CHEY) is the northernmost province of Sumatra. Its highland territory, surrounding Lake Tawar and the central city of Takengon, is considered the epicenter of one of the world’s most unique coffee terroirs.
North Sumatra province, just below Aceh, is a varied territory with high-elevation grasslands, mountain ranges, and the massive Lake Toba, another of the island’s most famous coffee-producing areas.
Regional coffee distinctions in the northern provinces of Sumatra were initially based on human ethnicity rather than geography: Mandheling is a widespread cultural group found across Sumatra and Malaysia; “Batak,” to use another example, is a Mandheling sub-ethnicity based around Lake Toba and considered a smaller regional coffee pedigree unto itself, and often marketed as such.
Today, “Mandheling” is one of the broadest coffee trading terms for a regional blend in Indonesia. It applies to almost any blend of wet-hulled coffees from across the northern half of the island of Sumatra that suit a generic cup profile that is heavy on the palate, earthy in balance, and complex.