Gajah Aceh is our first Direct Trade venture into Indonesia. Our producer partners in Indonesia reside well inland from the coast near Takengon and Lake Tawar in the Aceh Province of the archipelago’s northern most Island of Sumatra. Aceh Province was mired in political and military conflict between 1976 and 2005 as the GAM insurgency group (Free Aceh Movement) made waves trying to separate Aceh from Indonesian sovereignty.
During this time period farmers in other parts of Sumatra and Java were replanting their farms with higher yielding, more disease resistant and lower quality coffee varietals. Acehenese farms, which had been abandoned due to violence, were left planted with heirloom varietals that were originally brought to the province by Arab traders at the beginning of the 1900’s.
The superior quality of this Gajah Aceh is undoubtedly due to the mostly heirloom Typica and Bourbon varietals. Carefully built by our quality control team, this lot of coffee comes from three sub-regions around the lake: Kebayakan, Bintang and Pantan Lues. Stumptown has worked with PT Gajah, a local coffee buying company since 2007 to increase the quality of the coffee coming out of these sub- regions. PT Gajah projects include building a centralized washing station, tracing coffee back to the farm level, and rewarding farmers for increased craft in their coffee cultivation. After depulping and minimal fermentation, the coffees are semi-washed then dried on covered patios, which protect the beans from the elements. Organizations like USAID and DAI are also actively helping educate farmers about increasing quality due to cherry selection and advancements in processing techniques. The potential for these Indonesian coffees is endless.