Organic Sumatra Takengon Jagong Jeget IKA

928 smallholder farmers organized around PT. Ihtiyeri Keti Ara (PT. IKA)

Coffee producers in Aceh often self-identify as “Gayo”, after the Gayonese ethnic group which has long made Aceh their home. The Gayonese maintain a traditional village lifestyle that includes houses that resemble ships. Coffee is cultivated and harvested from farms that average less than 3 acres in size, and seventy percent of producers are women who rely on coffee income to support their families.

This coffee was processed using a wet-hulling method that is virtually unique to Indonesia known as Giling Basah in the Indonesian language. In standard washed processing, coffee beans dry inside their parchment layer until they reach the right moisture level, and only then is the parchment removed. Wet-hulling does the opposite: the parchment is stripped off while beans are still wet, at a much higher moisture content than other processing methods. The exposed beans then finish drying on their own and the results give the coffees their hallmark characteristics – full body, very low acidity, and complex earthy flavors