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MoreCoffee! in Sumatra - 2007, Part 3
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A typical local "parchment" market You are a parchment coffee buyer. You arrive at the parchment market. People and cars are everywhere -- multi-colored tent stalls line the road and sell just about anything you could ever want to buy. The smell of fried bananas, ground coffee, and pungent spices fills your nose and there is a frenzied energy in the air. Women with their babies tied to their backs rush by hauling rickety wooden carts of vegetables, furniture and raw meat. Tiny trucks deliver shipments of the pungent Durian and other fruits to stalls on their route. As you walk by, people enthusiastically cajole and playfully beg for you to come buy trinkets or food by the kilo from their stands - small children in matching school uniforms look at you and giggle at the out of place foreigner. You skillfully dodge a motorbike-with-sidecar taxi that nearly just ran you over. Horns honk. People laugh. You arrive at a parchment coffee stand and a jolly woman with a brightly-colored head wrap whips out her calculator and tells you how great her coffee is. You dig your hands into a barrel of parchment coffee, lift as much as you can to your nose and inhale the aroma. What's it smell like? Is it sour? Is it fruity? Grainy? Fermented? Sweet? What color is it? Is the typically hay-colored parchment too green? Mildewy? How much does it weigh? What's the moisture content? Is there insect damage? You negotiate a fair price and liter jars worth of coffee parchment are poured into a sack that you will take back to your facility for processing. Changes afoot I mentioned that Volkopi only buys and exports the highest quality coffee available in Sumatra. Specialty coffee shouldn't be earthy or mildewy, but typically an exception is made for Sumatran coffee by most consumers. This has been much more a function of necessity than choice (you simply couldn't find clean Sumatra coffee in the past). Over the past 20 years though, people have become accustomed to an earthy / musty Sumatran cup. Many people, including myself, find it quite pleasant and desirable to a certain extent. However, as better processing techniques arrive to Sumatra, the overall cup profile of Sumatran coffee is becoming cleaner and less muddy. Some people still prefer the old school flavors - but we've generally found cleaner Sumatran cups to be more pleasant. Sumatran coffee will always have "earthen" flavors: nutty, chocolate, woody and spice notes with shadows of earthiness in the background but not explicitly perceptible - and we love this. As time progresses, expect to see less and less earthiness in the specialty Sumatran cup. This is merely a function of better and cleaner processing. | ||||||||
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Summing things up... My experience in Sumatra was incredible. I was blown away by the friendliness and openness of everyone. I loved eating with my hands at restaurants too (75% of Indonesians eat with their hands and don't use any silverware). I loved the excitement of dodging chickens and piglets while riding down dirt roads in disrepair on a motorbike with only a rear brake. I loved the beauty of the countryside - and the action and colors at the local markets. I loved not knowing what was going to happen next. I learned quite a bit about Sumatra and the diversity of its coffee and the challenges the country faces in meeting demand and improving the quality of its coffee. Traveling in developing countries always takes quite a bit out of me...but the experience is always worth it when I look back on it. I can't wait to go back! Casey Cobb, Brand Manager of MoreCoffee!, has extensive experience in developing countries (he's traveled, lived, and worked in 25+!). In addition to traveling for the company, he does the majority of green coffee buying and cupping for MoreCoffee!. His palate, judgment and experience are a valuable asset to the company. Questions? Give him a call at 800-600-0033 or shoot him an email support@morecoffee.com! Intro - Sumatra Travelogue Part 1 - Sumatra Travelogue Part 2 - Sumatra Travelogue Part 3 - Sumatra Travelogue Sumatra Trip Pictures | ||||||||
