Geography:
The Sumatra Mandheling coffee comes from Indonesia. A tiny area of islands in the north west part of Indonesia is responsible for all Mandheling coffees. The other two types of Indonesian Sumatra coffees being Lintong and Gayo. This section of Indonesia has a whole bunch of small batch farmers, and as a result tends to have a pretty diverse flavor profile. These islands are also volcanic as well, which tends to give the soil an extra kick of minerals that translates into interesting coffee flavors.
What Makes This Coffee Unique:
The coffee farmers have a couple different things going on for them. First off, the processing method is different than anywhere else on Earth. You may have read about the washed or unwashed processing methods that are used pretty much everywhere else. The coffee from this region has a unique method that is called the “wet hull method” or “Giling Basah.”
This method is unique for a couple of different reasons. Although it starts out similarly by using a mechanical process to remove the hull of the coffee bean, it is then left out to ferment for one day. That mild fermentation removes some of the stickiness. The coffee beans are then protected by a parchment when they are washed and left out to dry. The beans are not dried as heavily afterwards either. Instead of retaining about 10% moisture as other drying methods aim for, the wet hull method leaves it at about 35%.
Besides this, the coffee beans are even a different color here as well. Most unroasted coffee beans are green, but due to the soil in the area, these coffee beans are blue. This is partially attributed to the low iron in the soil, which is interesting, being from a volcanic area where typically iron would be all over the place.
Flavors:
Sumatra coffees are known for having a very distinctive flavor profile. People either tend to love it or hate it. Sumatra Mandheling coffee tends to have a lot earthier tastes in the background. Some might describe the flavors present as tasting like mushrooms, or herbs, or even moss.
Besides the earthy tones, Sumatra Mandheling coffee has the lowest acidity of any other coffee in the world. It not only has that going for it, but it also has an incredibly thick body to it.
Underneath the earthiness, there are also hints of vanilla, cocoa, and cedar. These flavors pop out in a different way than other coffees with vanilla and cocoa because of the background profile, and because generally you have to roast a bit more to eliminate more biting flavors to really notice them. That is not the case with Sumatra Mandheling coffee.
Cookie Pairing:
The Sumatra Mandheling coffee goes really well with our birthday cake cookie. The birthday cake really comes to life with the subtle vanilla flavor and earthy tones of the coffee. It’ll be almost like you are drinking a delicious coffee and vanilla flavored birthday cake. The birthday cake cookie has also been really popular on its own, so be sure to try it first without coffee. Then, after that bite, grab a taste of coffee (and enhance its flavor by doing this) to get the most out of your experience.
