Our Coffees Gajah Mountain, Indonesia

High in these Aceh Mountains lays a jungle forest where the small holders of the Gajah Mountain dwell. We travelled to these remote regions to find the coffee farmers of Pantanlues and Kaybaykan and exclusively bring this delicious, slowly sun-dried coffee to you.

The Aceh Province of the Indonesian archipelago's northern island of Sumatra, was hindered by conflict with the GAM independence movement until 2005. The effect of the Tsunami in 2004 literally sucked the life out of the rebels with estimates of 25,000 killed. The effect forced through a peace agreement that has achieved some stability. By 2006 the area was safe to visit and we developed our direct trading relationship with Gajah Mountain farmers.

The area is devoutly Muslim so building a local mosque is an important consideration for these communities. We observed that generally education standards are good in Aceh and it's considered that an indicator of wealth is making the Hajj (trip to Mecca).

This is a matriarchal society where mostly women are represented in the village markets with their produce. Farmers de-pulp their coffee cherries, then after a short fermentation and semi-wash are partially dried on patios. The issue of traceability is complex for this origin and so our local partner Gajah Mountain purchases from these farmers and then undertakes final post-harvest processing at the dry mill facility. Our preparation undergoes a complex staggered drying process where the parchment coffee is removed from the sacks, moisture is reduced by sun drying and then coffee is re-bagged. This creates the intensity of aroma. The final milling is completed by hand sorting as the dark/blue green colour of the bean makes it unsuitable for the automated colour sorting used to separate Central American coffees.