Crown Jewel Sumatra Kayu Aro Nusantara Wet Hulled CJ1532 – 30784 – SPOT RCWHSE

taste

Taste Analysis by Chris Kornman 

Wet hulled Sumatras like this one don’t come along very often. This is an uncommonly clean, vivaciously bright coffee with extraordinary depth and complexity, all while still retaining some of our favorite regional flavors we commonly associate with the Indonesian island. 

Cleanliness is a defining factor in this coffee, apparent immediately from our first sample roast. Our team also noted great sweetness (including notes of honey, caramel, and palm sugar) with a lot of interesting spice notes (cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg) with an array of unusual fruit flavors like persimmon and green guava in concert with the more expected lime zest, lemongrass, and honeydew flavors. 

Roasting this coffee proved its versatility; our Ikawa trials showed big flavor differences in small batches with minor changes to the Maillard reaction length, and Doris’s Diedrich roast focused on honing the acidity and post-crack sweetness development. Colin’s brew trials indicated strong potential for both batch brew and pour-overs, even at slightly low extraction levels, given its balance of full bodied characteristics with complex flavor profile. MJ noted a crowd-pleasing sweetness with vibrant acidity and a unique matcha tea-like finish when pulled as espresso. 

Any way you choose to enjoy it, this traditionally processed Sumatran coffee is anything-but-traditional in flavor, while still retaining echoes of terroir. It’s a wonderfully chuggable coffee, one that, as I write this in the late afternoon, I have to continually remind myself to sip slowly and in moderation, if I want to sleep. 

source

Source Analysis by Evan Gilman

Having recently returned from the border of Kerinci and Jambi provinces at Gunung Kerinci, I can share the story of how the area is completely covered with intensive agriculture, fields of tea, red shallots, potatoes, and chili peppers stretching to the horizon in every direction but the volcano. The hum of tea shrub harvesters and pesticide sprayers starts at about 6am, just after the raucous motorbike frenzy as everyone heads out to the farms to start the day’s work. The only one getting up earlier is the muezzin.

This is traditionally a tea production area, and was largely uninhabited until the arrival of Dutch-led tea farms in about 1915. These weren’t fully established until about 1918, but began as a series of villages, or apdailing that were built only to house tea field workers, and were named simply by letter (Apdailing A, Apdailing B, and so on). That is to say, this area has been fully subsumed by intensive agriculture for over 100 years now. As time passed, each of these villages named themselves more creatively, and with more personality (a low bar, to be sure). With Indonesian independence came diversification of crops, and the ability for newly minted landowners to determine their future, though state-run tea plantations are still very much in operation. This is a generally prosperous area as a result, and many of the old families from Java that migrated here 100 years ago have become pillars of their community. Most have intercropped their land with coffee.

The coffee we’re talking about today is sourced from family-owned farms organized around an export company and mill called PT. AgroTropic Nusantara (AGTN), which has been working with coffee producers since 2013 in the Kayu Aro highlands of the Kerinci regency within the Jambi province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.  

AGTN has established an association of 680 producers who cultivating coffee on parcels of 1 hectare or less around the Kerinci valley’s edge near Mount Kerinci, the highest volcano in Indonesia and home to the Sumatran tiger. Through coffee AGTN has focused on supporting increased employment opportunities for women, which includes a woman, Emma Fatma, as the director of operations. Women are also running the coffee nursery program and handsorting at the dry mill.

Speaking of the nursery, AGTN has distributed over 1 million seedlings to the general area in recent years. Some of the original proponents of arabica production and agroforestry programming, Emma, Muljadi, and Sukianto have consistently pushed for abundant shade cover, reduction of herbicide and pesticide use, and organic fertilization programs. While many coffee shrubs are cut at times when coffee cherry prices are unsustainably low, they’ve also promoted pruning over complete stumping or uprooting of plants so that farmers will have a backup once prices inevitably recover.  

Their wet mill at Sungai Lintang in particular has been developing and adding capacity over the past few years and is now able to process 25 metric tons of cherry per day during peak harvest. Each of the processing areas from flotation to pulping and fermentation are separate, and the effluent waste from processing is held in tanks and filtered before being released. Waste material is used for compost, mulch, or animal feed. Unripe and underdeveloped cherries are separated by flotation, pulped, density-sorted in a channel, and fermented with fresh water. Finished coffee is then dried under parabolic covers either on clean patios or raised beds, then held in parchment or pod in their curing area to redistribute moisture evenly. 

Another factor in maintaining quality and providing technical assistance is AGTN’s cherry selection and purchasing process. While it is low-tech, the ‘plate method’ is effective. A standard 30cm dinner plate is filled with cherry. If only 3 green/unripe cherries are found, the picker gets top price. 4-6 gets middle price, and 7+ is rejected. As a result, folks tend to bring in their best selections, and only pick when ripe. Cherry is accepted from known farmers only, and if they want to participate, they need to register.  

The nearby Kerinci Seblat National Park (the largest national park in Sumatra and a UNESCO World Heritage site) is off limits to coffee production, and is an international destination for wildlife lovers, and bird watchers in particular. AGTN works closely with producers to decrease forest encroachment by using their coffee farms as a protective buffer for the Park, which encircles the entirety of Gunung Kerinci with its unparalleled natural beauty. This is a longstanding concern of Emma, Muljadi, and Sukianto (the leads at AGTN), who have previously done work in forest conservation, beginning as early as 1986. Their life’s work continues on unabated here, and the sweet results of their efforts are clear in this eminently clean and delectable wet hulled coffee. 

green

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman 

This wet-hulled Sumatra is a Grade 1 premium sort, and it looks excellent. The classic wet-hulled jade-like coloration is here, with hardly any variation in hue from bean to bean. It’s quite uniform, with few to none of the occasional secondary defects and huller-crushed anomalies we see sometimes in similarly processed coffees. Spread somewhat widely across screen sizes with a lean towards the larger end, it has a fairly low density, modestly high moisture, and somewhat elevated water activity. These metrics all point to slightly lower and slower roasting approaches as a good starting point. 

Agrotopik Nusantara has provided us the names of their member’s plant types, which include a number of unusual entries, particularly to those unfamiliar with Indonesian coffee cultivars. I’ve grouped them below for you with a brief description of each: 

The Timor Hybrid: 

“Timtim” is a local name for the Timor Hybrid (aka Hibrido de Timor, or HdT), a spontaneous cross of arabica and robusta found first on its namesake island in the Pacific. Gayo 1 is an Indonesian Coffee and Cacao Research Institute selection of HdT, from the Jember station. 

Catimor Types (HdT x Caturra) and other HdT hybrids: 

Andung Sari, is a relatively common Catimor selection frequently grown in Java and northern Sumatra and is characterized by its oblong “longberry” seed shape. P88 is reportedly a Catimor of Colombian origin. Borbor (Gayo 2) is a cultivar of debated genetics, presumed to be a Bourbon and crossed with the Gayo 1 HdT selection. 

The popular and prolific Sigarar Utang is supposedly a spontaneous cross of HdT and Bourbon – but is a short-stature tree (making it a likely Catimor) with exceptionally high yields and early lifespan productivity. The cultivar has earned a reputation and several nicknames. “Sigarar Utang” is a phrase that, in local dialect, indicates how quickly the farmer may repay their debt based on the early maturation and high yield of the plant. Sometimes it’s referred to as “Super Ateng” or just “Ateng,” the stage name of a well-loved and short-of-stature Indonesian comedian, as well as a common abbreviation for “Aceh Tengah” or Central Aceh. Occasionally, we also see “Jaluk,” which is the name of the village where it was first introduced in the late 1980s 

S795: 

Jember, also known as S795, is widely grown in Indonesia. Though it was originally developed in India, the cultivar was distributed through its namesake research station in Jember, East Java. It is bred from Kent (an Indian pure arabica selection) and S228 (a liberica x arabica hybrid) and is known to be disease resistant. 

diedrich ir-5

Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Doris Garrido  

Some things I noticed on tasting this Sumatra is that it would use a great amount of gas power after the turning point, but just for a little bit, because after the color change it would have enough energy to move through first crack on its own. It is like the moisture is saying “bring the heat,” and the density responds  “calm down.” 

I wanted to roast this coffee looking for citrus juiciness and modulating the sweetness in the most delicate way I could. For this, I decided to run the whole roast with air by warming the drum to a higher temperature and then making it drop with air (I did the roast analysis on a 5 kilo Diedrich with a 5.5 lb. batch) and get it stabilized before I charge the coffee. 

416F was the charge temperature. I got the drum stable and charged the coffee right there, starting the gas at 70%. Applied more heat until reaching 100% after turning point and left it there just before the color change at 313F (4:50). At 373F I increased the airflow to 100% and waited for the first crack. At this point, the roast was running slow, and it was hard for me to hear the cracking, I went by eye and marked it at 376.4F. I spent 1:59 seconds on post-development and dropped the coffee at 380F. This was a 10:49-minute roast.  

I believe the low temperatures I got during Maillard and post-development helped me to bring a cleaner sweetness that mixed with the vibrant acidity and were exactly what I was looking for. Flavor notes on the cupping table: Lemon grass, lemon tea, pomegranate, lemon zest, chamomile, brown sugar, herbal tea, silky mouthfeel, and long-lasting finish. After a few days of roasting, I brewed some of it for myself and I was surprised by the high-spice aroma I got, and sweetness opened up great. I will say that this coffee has a lot of flavors to play with. On this roast I wanted a clean sweetness and acidity, overall I got it, but if the goal is bringing more of the chocolate, that is also there for sure and you can have it — I would say by keeping the heat a little longer.  

aillio bullet r1

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman 

Unless otherwise noted, we use both the roast.world site and Artisan software to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below, by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the Artisan links below.  

Generally, we have good results starting our 500g roasts with 428F preheating, P6 power, F2 fan, and d6 drum speed. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

Rerturning from Sumatra to find this coffee safely arrived at the Port of Oakland was an excellent way to conclude my trip. After the usual administrative kerfuffle that accompanies a clerical error on the part of a government entity this coffee was able to clear customs in a timely fashion, much to the happiness of everyone involved, including Pak Sukianto, who I had a lengthy conversation with at their office in Sungai Lintang. All’s well that ends well – this coffee tastes almost exactly the way it did on the cupping table at their office! 

All that aside, this coffee was a pleasure to roast. I was able to start with a solid amount of heat application, and bring plenty of airflow to this roast without worrying about the coffee crashing in the final minutes of post crack development. I started with a 455F charge temperature, P8 power, and F2 fan speed. This was only a 300g batch unlike my usual 500g batches, and I took drum speed down to D5 in order to not subject any of the beans to centripetal force. I wanted my roast to err on the short side to really express some of the sweet and delicate notes I knew this coffee was holding, in counterpoint to so many wet hulled coffees we see roasted to second crack and beyond.  

A little before turning point, I increased fan speed to F3 to really spend a good amount of time in drying, ridding this coffee of any grassy notes it may have contained. I also reduced power to P7 to slowly draw the coffee through Maillard. A little past yellowing, I increased fan speed further to F4 and reduced power yet again to P6, where it stayed until the end of the roast. My only other movement was to increase fan speed to my usual maximum of F5 at first crack. 

I really enjoyed this roast, though I could see the case for going darker. So many of us expect dark roasts when it comes to Sumatran coffees, but try to think of the difference between Mandheling and Kerinci as similar to the difference between Guji and Nyeri, or Tolima and Imbabura. Opposite sides of the equator, completely different cultures, and different local customs. Also, different coffee. I got plenty of pinapple, green tea, palm sugar, and zesty lime.  

Drink as an espresso, or try it as a single origin drip – you won’t taste a Sumatran coffee like this too often! 

https://roast.world/@egilman/roasts/oRKi1rsfuofGWVElP27X3 

ikawa pro v3

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano  

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here. 

The first time this coffee was on a cupping table at The Crown it surprised the whole QC team. A phrase that can accompany a high-quality Indonesian coffee is “this is good… for an Indonesian coffee”. There is none of that here. Hands down this is a great coffee and the overwhelming murmur of approval at the cupping table confirms this. Doris and I put the Ikawa analysis roasts head-to-head against her roast analysis batch. 

The high-density got some really nice brown spice notes like all spice, marzipan, nougat and some cantaloupe. It had some toastier flavors but had a good acidity that brightened up as it cooled. The low-density roast ranged in levels of sweetness from toasted caramel to honey. It also had some structured hazelnut and creamy cashew notes paired with lemon tea and parsley. This roast felt very mild and as it cooled the flavor dissipated a bit more than the high-density roast. 

The fan favorite here was the low-density roast. The slight herbal flavors, layers of sweetness and minimal toasty notes really made for an enjoyable cup. This roast also had more potential to move the roast to different areas once it moves to a production batch.  

In comparison, the roast analysis outperformed the Ikawa by a large margin. The toasty flavors were cleaned up, it retained a nice acidity and complexity. From pomegranate, lime zest, chamomile, lemongrass and dark chocolate you can see why we are such a fan of this coffee.  

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 

Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

brew

Brew Analysis by Colin Cahill 

Coffees sourced at this scale—from across 680 individual farms—can be messy and disappointing, but this exceptionally-sorted lot from across elevations on the slopes of the tallest volcano in Indonesia—or on any island in Asia—could surprise you, as it did our QC team (as Isabella mentions above). Having gotten to spend a couple of years working across some of the diverse producer regions on Sumatra, I get super excited to taste coffees coming from such unique origins. Sumatra is one of the largest islands on Earth, with many unique cultural groups speaking over 50 languages, and with coffee farms spanning 1000 miles from the southern robusta heartland up to the celebrated arabica origins in the north. This coffee comes from area closer to the middle of the island, along the chain of volcanoes running from the southern tip to the northern tip—an area that has been a consistent source for us in recent years of clean and dynamic wet-hulled coffees. We brewed this one up a bunch of times on our pourover bar here in the Tasting Room and found consistently sweet and complex-yet-balanced brews. We were loving our brews on the Kalita Wave, so I want to bring our attention to the ways it performed across various recipes on the same brewer. 

Starting with one of our classic recipes, we ground 18 grams of coffee at a 9 on our EKS43, and worked with a total dose of 300 grams of water, split between a 50 gram bloom dose (left to bloom for 40 seconds), and additional pulses of 150 grams at 40 seconds and 100 grams at 1:40. The brew finished draining in 3:15, and it had a TDS of 1.39 and an extraction percentage of 19.69, which landed in a zone that tends to have pleasing body and flavor. This brew was delicate, woven through with notes of stone fruit, white grape, lime, and toffee. It had a crisp acidity that was well-balanced with a caramel-raisin sweetness, and was an easy brew to just keep sipping. A similar brew with an increased dose of 19 grams ground at the coarser 10 setting on our EKS43 had a bit more body with noticeable hints of date and peanut on top of the fruitier notes of the first brew.  

Coarsening the grind size to an 11 on our EKS43, and working with a larger dose of 20 grams, brewed at the same recipe as the others, we got a brew with a bit more body and a softer mouthfeel than the others. This brew was sweet and rich, loaded with caramel, raisin, and date notes, with softer fresh orange, a bit of kiwi, and some lingering florals. This brew was leaning into underextracted territory according to industry standards, but with its body and flavor complexity, it illustrates for us the extractability of our Diedrich roast of this coffee.  

Our brews of this bean had the acidity and flavors that we seek to feature on our pourover bar, but with a body closer to what we tend to feature on our batch-brew system, and it would be a lovely offering on either of those spots on our bar. The fruity and floral qualities of this coffee can really expand the way a lot of us think about wet-hull processing. 

espresso

Espresso Analysis by MJ Smith 

Recipe 1: 19g dose, 38g yield, 34 seconds
Recipe 2: 19.5g dose, 39g yield, 31 seconds  

Notes: Citrus, Stone Fruit, Chocolate, Honey 

Our Crown Jewels from Sumatra hold a similar place in my heart to our decaf Crown Jewels, in that I can count on them to destroy all the typical stereotypes that a lot of people hold over them. When most people hear Sumatra, I feel like the assumption is that it will be something along the lines of earthy and chocolatey. While this coffee does possess some nice chocolatey qualities, it was much heavier on the citrus and stone fruit notes, as well as a delightful caramel-honey sweetness. I tried a bunch of different recipes, but these next two were my favorite. 

My first recipe has a dose of 19g, a yield of 38g, and a pull time of 34 seconds. To me, this shot tastes like blood orange, honey, plums, and cocoa, with an aftertaste that reminded me of a sweet matcha latte. I shared some with the rest of the barista team and some of their notes included Turkish apricot, green tea, sweet basil syrup, tarragon, caramel, cherry, and nougat. This shot had some really exciting acidity and pleasant sweetness.  

For the second recipe, I bumped the dose up to 19.5g, and pulled it with a yield of 39g and time of 31 seconds. This was my favorite shot of the bunch. It was like chocolate covered cherries, lemon, honey, black tea, raisin, apricot, and ripe nectarine. The acidity and sweetness from before were both still present, but somehow even more balanced and enjoyable. The coffee’s citrusy notes went from being slightly naringin-esque to somewhere closer to a sweet meyer lemon. I could drink this espresso all summer! 

When brewing for yourself, I suggest a medium-high dose, yield, and pull time. Something else I noticed was that I wasn’t seeing the first drop until about 10 seconds in, with a lot of the volume coming in in the last 10-15 seconds. I think this coffee works great as an espresso with its crowd-pleasing sweetness and an uplifting brightness. Hope you enjoy!