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    Coffee Craftsmanship in Indonesia
    • Travel

    Uncover the secret of Sumatran coffee

    Learn about the unusual hulling technique that helps give Nespresso’s Master Origin Indonesia Arabica its classic, velvety flavor.

    Coffee farmer Iswandi picks coffee from his small farm of 0.75 hectares in Karang Rejo village, Wih Pesam Region, Bener Meriah Regency. Iswandi has been farming coffee for over 10 years.
    Photograph by Rena Effendi
    Photographs byRena Effendi
    ByMaryellen Kennedy Duckett
    Published March 20, 2019
    This is Paid Content. The editorial staff of National Geographic was not involved in the preparation or production of this content.

    Small farms in Aceh—the northernmost province on Indonesia’s island of Sumatra—produce coffee unlike any other on the planet. Earthen and syrupy with notes of tobacco and tropical fruit, Nespresso’s Aceh-sourced Master Origin Indonesia Arabica owes its distinctive taste, in large part, to an unusual coffee processing technique called wet hulling.

    Coffee Craftsmanship in Indonesia
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    Coffee Craftsmanship in Indonesia
    Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
    Left: Ardiansyah and Rahmah dry the coffee they harvest and process from their 1.5-hectare farm in Pante Raya Village, Wih Pesam Region of Bener Meriah Regency. Both Mr. Ardiansyah and Mrs. Rahmah are teachers, but they also farm coffee. Mr. Ardiansyah teaches at a high school nearby while Mrs. Rahmah works at a kindergarten in their neighborhood. They attend classes until midday and then go directly to the farm to look after their coffee crop. Mr. Ardiansyah has been working in the coffee industry for 14 years.
    Right: Farmers dry their coffee in the front yards of their homes in Tanah Gayo. What makes the coffee flavor special here is the unique process of wet hulling. This method was developed throughout the region's history due to its economic and climatic conditions. Wet hulling allows the farmers to sell their coffee beans faster than in any other area. Coffee gets pulped and fermented overnight, then it dries for 2-3 hours before it’s ready to be hulled. The resulting green beans will dry for another 2-3 days. Once ready, the collectors will buy the green beans. The entire process of transferring coffee from the harvest to the buyer takes about one week.
    Photographs by Rena Effendi

    “The coffee farmers hull the coffee of its parchment skin when the coffee is still wet,” says coffee expert Shirin Moayaad. “Everywhere else dries pulp parchment coffee completely, but in Sumatra, it gets skin-dried overnight to allow the largest amounts of excess moisture to drain off. Then, they hull it when it is wet—at about 40 percent moisture—so the coffee beans are very pliable. If you chew on one, you could bite right through it.”

    As Shirin explains, wet hulling likely was born of necessity—a way to accelerate the drying process in Sumatra’s hot, damp environment. “The process is done in a few other places now, but nowhere else produces the intense, cured tobacco note of the Sumatra coffee. The combination of the wet hulling, the local climate and plant varieties, and the microbes and microclimates there produces this insane coffee.”

    Umi helps farmers pick coffee cherries during harvest season in Pante Raya Dalam Village, Wih Pesam Region of Bener Meriah Regency.
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    Wildan helps his uncle pulp harvested coffee cherries using a basic machine in Blang Mersah Village, Pegasing Region, Aceh Tengah Regency. <g class="gr_ gr_8 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="8" data-gr-id="8" style="font-size: 12px;">Wildan's</g> uncle Mr. Sutrisno is a farmer who sells his beans to Nespresso. Coffee cultivation is heavily dependent on manual labor and remains an artisan craft as most processes are still done by hand.
    Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
    <p>Bener Meriah has a long tradition of coffee cultivation, which was brought by the Dutch colonists in the nineteenth century and continued after Indonesia gained independence.</p>
    Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
    <p>Women prepare a fish curry lunch to feed a community of coffee farmers in Bener Meriah. These female farmers will be the first generation to join the cooperative here.</p>
    Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
    Aside from coffee cultivation, Iswandi also works in <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="6" data-gr-id="6">coffee</g> collection. He buys harvested coffee cherries from local farmers and processes them to parchment or green beans and sells them at bulk to the Cooperative.
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    Coffee farmers and husband and wife, Ismono and <g class="gr_ gr_9 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="9" data-gr-id="9">Naswati</g>, stand in front of their home in Pante Raya Dalam Village, Wih Pesam Region, Bener Meriah Regency. They own a farm of about two hectares. Mr. Ismono is one of Nespresso’s farmers who <g class="gr_ gr_10 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="10" data-gr-id="10">has</g> been working in coffee cultivation for more than 30 years. Local farmers take pride in their long history of coffee cultivation. There is a saying that each farmer knows in Bener Meriah: “I am born from a twig of the coffee tree.”
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    <p>A young boy plays on a coffee farm in Takengon, Indonesia.</p>
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    Umi helps farmers pick coffee cherries during harvest season in Pante Raya Dalam Village, Wih Pesam Region of Bener Meriah Regency.
    Umi helps farmers pick coffee cherries during harvest season in Pante Raya Dalam Village, Wih Pesam Region of Bener Meriah Regency.
    Photograph by Rena Effendi

    Since the Sumatran cherries are much wetter when they are hulled, the beans take a bit of a beating in the process. Yet, instead of damaging coffee quality, Shirin says, the imperfections caused by wet hulling actually help enhance the flavor. “Together with the plant varieties and the particular microbes that get into the beans and affect the fermentation, the wet hulling creates this unique flavor most often likened to the taste or aromatics of cured pipe tobacco.”

    To bring the Master Origin Indonesia Arabica to the world, Nespresso, Fairtrade, and coffee supplier Olam established a new Fairtrade coffee cooperative in Aceh in 2017. The cooperative—named Ara (“this is”) Cahayani (“sun or light”) Gayo (for Aceh’s location in the Gayo Highlands)—has 1,800 farmer-members who receive hands-on technical support from Nespresso agronomists, premiums for producing high-quality coffee, and other incentives and benefits offered through Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program. Launched in 2003, it works to create long-term, sustainable coffee quality by building direct relationships with local growers.

    AAA agronomists help farmers achieve consistent results using the unusual wet-hulling process that gives Aceh’s coffee its distinctive taste. Process improvements include increasing the volume of high-quality coffee produced to ensure a steady supply for Nespresso’s coffee connoisseurs.

    Coffee Craftsmanship in Indonesia
    Coffee is grown in Takengon, Aceh at an altitude between 1000 - 1700 meters above sea level. Coffee first arrived in the region in the nineteenth century and was brought by Dutch colonizers. The Dutch called the coffee "The Crop of the Future" and by 1933, more than 13,000 hectares of coffee was planted.
    Photograph by Rena Effendi
    Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

    As a result, Nespresso has a sustainable source of Master Origin Indonesia Arabica and the Gayo Fairtrade cooperative members earn more for their coffee. The premiums paid by Nespresso for high-quality beans enables farmers to support their families and empowers the cooperative to invest in the local community.

    “Nespresso receives good coffee and we get prosperity,” summarizes Terry Enda Wahyuni, treasurer of the Ara Cahayani Gayo Fairtrade cooperative. “With the coffee, we give happiness to our farmers and increase members’ welfare. Part of the premium paid will be invested by the members to build an after-school center for children in our community.”

    While the Fairtrade cooperative is relatively new in Aceh, the concept of working together is not, observes National Geographic photographer Rena Effendi, who recently traveled to Sumatra to capture images of the coffee culture in the Gayo Highlands.

    “There is this real sense of community around the coffee that brings people together,” Rena says. “We met laborers who work for other coffee farmers and also growers who work on their own farms. We also met a lot of women farmers who gather in one place for communal lunches. People share equipment on farms, and they all bring the coffee to one location to use the wet-hulling machine. Everyone works together for the coffee.”



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