Coffee Story: This Sumatra checks all the boxes that we aim for when bringing a new coffee into our line up! Farming, harvesting, and processing are all done with the goal of creating a sustainable, responsible, and rewarding life for the farmers and locals. AgroTropic, founded by conservation expert Pak Suki Anto, has its Sungai Lintang Coffee facility at the foot of Mount Kerinici. The group has been working with local farmers since 2009 and providing them with seedlings — it distributed 50,000 to 38 farmers initially and two years later distributed 180,000 seedlings to eight hundred local farmers, who intercrop the coffee with cinnamon, tea, potatoes, and vegetables. Agronomists also work with the farmers on planting, pruning, harvesting, and composting techniques, as well as on “alley cropping,” which encourages the planting of coffee trees spread two arms’ width apart, to allow in light and air. They also visit the farmers at least once a month, to check in and help them keep standards high. When ripe cherries arrive at the Sungai Lintang facility, the crews start cleaning and pulping them and put the fresh, wet parchment into water fermentation tanks for a minimum of 12 hours. The parchment is then washed and sun-dried on patios, as well as in temperature- and humidity-controlled greenhouses with raised beds. Afterward, the beans are sorted first with a mechanical gravity separator and then a second time by hand. Small bits of stone or concrete may be found in patio dried coffee. Check carefully to avoid damage to grinders.
