Barista Magazine

Apr-May 2012

Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.

Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/60686

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 31 of 91

SUMATRA BY ALEXANDER RUAS Editor's note: The Swedish National Barista Team visited Sumatra in January to learn about Indonesian coffee culture. Alexander Ruas, 2011 Swedish Barista Champion from Drop Coffee in Stockholm, shares some stories and pictures from the trip with this Field Report. DAY 1—OPAL COFFEE WITH THE SWEDISH TEAM It's been a long day, but we're finally at Opal Coffee's café in the hot and humid city of Medan, the fourth-largest city in Indonesia and capital of the Northern Sumatra province. Team Sweden met at the airport in Copenhagen and flew together for the 20-ish hours it took to get here. Now I'm trying to regain my equilibrium by downing as many espressos as I can, as I try all of the café's five different single varieties served from a Mahlkönig and La Marzocco set up. We have all, in different ways, been preparing for this trip to visit coffee farms in Northern Sumatra for months. We're here as our prize for winning the 2011 Nordic Barista Cup (NBC). Since we all live in different parts of Sweden, we haven't really seen each other much since the NBC last August. The team consists of Anne Lunell, 2006 Swedish Barista Champ and co- owner of the micro-roaster Koppi in Helsingborg; Pernilla Gard, director of da Matteo's three cafés in Gothenburg and twice the third-place winner of the Swedish Barista Cup, and also now two-time winner of the NBC as Team Sweden won in 2010, as well; Per Nordby who personified the da Matteo roastery for several years before becoming a freelance cupper and "flying roaster, have fingers (and toes); and lastly, me, Alexander Ruas, the 2011 Swedish Barista Champion and just a generally swell dude. DAY 2—LAKE TOBA WITH A GROUP OF COFFEE HUNTERS We have a varied group of enthusiastic coffee hunters along for the ride this week. Among others, there are a couple of Australian micro-roasters; Mel, Leah and Katherine from the British company Mercanta who also organized the trip; Anette from Square Mile Roasters in London; Heili, an Estonian micro-roaster; and of course the NBC committee. We set out in a rather large bus that took us fast and furiously through the Sumatran countryside. Leaving Medan, the ride started out quite dusty, but as soon as we got out of the most densely populated areas, the land quickly become lush and rich and green everywhere. One of the representatives from the company Sarimakmur, who were our hosts in Sumatra said, "In Indonesia, we are so lucky. All we have to do is throw a stick in the jungle, 32 barista magazine and it will start growing and giving us a harvest after a few months." As we drove higher and higher up in the mountains, we could see the vegetation and flora changing around us. If rice patties and rubber trees were dominant at the lower altitudes, now we were seeing lots of coffee and even pine trees, almost enough to make me think we were back in Sweden! Halfway to our destination, we stopped and spent the night at a lovely hotel overlooking the gigantic Lake Toba. It is the largest lake in the world that is situated on an island. Time for some quick facts: Indonesia has about 240 million inhabitants and produces about seven million bags of coffee (85% Robusta and 15% Arabica). Most of the time coffee farmers own small one or two acre lots. After a late dinner in town and some beer and billiards in the hotel bar, we all hit the sack totally exhausted. DAY 3—LINTONG After a nice toast, juice and coffee fiesta for breakfast at our hotel, we were taken to a dry mill in Lintong to see the traditional method of processing and buying coffee in this region. First I have to say that all of us on this journey had experienced many different Indonesian coffees before the trip, and we had quite varied opinions of them. Some of the people in the group really were quite skeptical about finding good coffee in Indonesia at all. The better coffees from this part of the world tend to be described as " and has visited more coffee-producing countries than the rest of us earthy, with low acidity and full body. A lot of these tastes come from the conventional collection and processing techniques. We got a tour of the traditional method that the small farmers usually use. After harvesting their coffee cherries, the farmers typically run them through the manual depulper at their farm. They then sell this semi-washed and semi-dried coffee to a processing station where hopefully within a day it will have the parchment removed. Then the green beans are spread out on the cement beds to dry in the sun. This method really affects the taste of the coffee. It means that the flavor we typically think of as Indonesian has a lot to do with the method of collection and processing and not as much with variety and terroir as one would like. We visited the Sihombing family that produces the Jakarta and Aceh variety on their three acres in the Lintong area. Working our way back through the seed-to-cup chain, Mrs. Sihombing had in fact recently sold all her pulped cherry to the dry mill we had just visited. FIELD REPORT AUSTRALIA SUMATRA PHOTOS BY ALEXANDER RUAS

Articles in this issue

view archives of Barista Magazine - Apr-May 2012
subscribe to email alerts