Crown Jewel Sumatra Bukit Sama Dry Hulled Honey

Boxes 0

Warehouses Oakland

Out of stock

Overview

This is a dry hulled honey coffee from Aceh, Sumatra, produced by farmers in the community of Bukit Sama, under the guidance of Aulia Kahfi and in association with CV Yudi Putra.

The flavor profile is deeply sweet, with gentle citric and malic fruit acidity, and a hint of herbal flavors like coriander, ginger, and cedar common in Sumatran coffees.

Our roasters found this coffee easy to work with, though it preferred gentle and even heat application. First crack is quiet on this coffee, so keep an ear to the drum.

When brewed, we found that this coffee extracted quite quickly and readily. We tasted plenty of malic acidity, ample sweetness, and a clean finish at slightly lower extraction percentages.

Taste Analysis by Evan Gilman

Reading through our analysis, you’ll find that we are all taken aback by the sweet and clean profile of this Indonesian coffee. This area of Sumatra typically brings coffees with heavy mouthfeel, mild acidity, and abundant sweetness. Perhaps the most notable feature of coffees from Sumatra is the herbal bent which, while not entirely lacking in this coffee, is toned down by the parchment-dried honey process employed at Aulia Kahfi’s facility.

In this honey process coffee from Aceh, you’ll find all the deep sweetness and smooth mouthfeel you expect, as well as the additional zip of fruit acidity taking the form of pomegranate and raspberry syrup flavors. The heavy milk chocolate sweetness is preeminent, and you may find just a touch of sweet pipe tobacco flavor, too. Of course, the classic herbal hit is honored here in the form of fresh coriander and the slightest touch of cedar on the finish.

Most importantly, this coffee presents well in nearly every preparation method. We are going to serve this coffee as filter drip here at The Crown, but you can expect this Sumatra to be a banger no matter how you brew it. Deeply enjoyable!

Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger

Aceh (pronounced AH-CHEY) is the northernmost province of Sumatra. Its highland territory, surrounding Lake Tawar and the central city of Takengon, is considered the epicenter of one of the world’s most unique coffee terroirs. Coffee farms in this area are managed with the experience of many generations of cultivation, and are harmoniously woven into their surrounding tropical forests. The canopies are loud and fields are almost impenetrably thick with coffee plants, fruit trees, and vegetables, all of which are constantly flushing with new growth. Year-round mists and rain showers never cease, farm floors are spongy and deep with layered biomass, and almost every square meter of the region seems to exude life. Nothing is ever still. Including the ripening of coffee, which occurs ten months out of the year.

This coffee is grown and processed by farmers located in Bukit Sama, a very small community just a short drive northwest up the ridge from Lake Tawar and the town of Takengon. Contributing farmers here have a combined coffee cultivation of around 200 hectares, an average of 0.5-1 hectare apiece. As is typical across Aceh and Northern Sumatra provinces, smallholder coffee here tends to be organized by collector, a prominent local position in Sumatra’s complex coffee value chain. Collectors consolidate coffee from their immediate community, usually in their own home. They are accountable for quality standards and managing cash flow on behalf of cooperatives or mills for humid parchment, and often times fresh cherry in need of processing.

The typical processing culture of Sumatra is the wet-hull, in which a batch of coffee is depulped, fermented overnight, washed clean, and then sun-dried only enough to be dry to the touch before it’s mechanically hulled of its parchment, leaving behind just the soft, high-moisture coffee bean (thus earning the term “wet-hulled”), all of which is spread out on large patios to continue drying. In this case, however, a skilled local processor, Aulia Kahfi, oversees a limited amount of honey process coffees each year. These coffees are also fully dried prior to milling to allow the full influence of the honey processing to affect the final cup. Drying in this case is no different than any honey process in Central America. But here, where wet-hulling is the norm, fully dried, or “dry-hulled” coffee, is a very big effort requiring uncommon knowledge and dedicated longer-term drying space, which in the steep highlands is scarce and valuable. The result is worth the extra effort: the honey processing adds a distinct fruit-syrup quality to the mouthfeel of this coffee, and the flavors are strongly reminiscent of grape, citrus zest, and caramelized squash.

Aulia Khafi is in partnership with a dry mill and exporter called C.V. Yudi Putra, a second-generation family-owned business located in Medan, the closest major port city to Lake Tawar, and a supplier partner to Royal for over 15 years now. Yudi Putra was established by Syahrial Jauhari in 1979 and has been buying top quality honeys from Aceh and Lake Toba (in Northern Sumatra province) since 2008.

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman

Perfectly dried coffee from Indonesia is an incredible pleasure to work with as a grader and roaster. This honey processed coffee hits excellent moisture and water activity figures and has a pretty high density, generally ticking all of the “not your dad’s Sumatra” metrics. The green is a little wide in screen size (if you pressed me to critique), but overall large and within a manageable range. The beans themselves are in great shape, nicely sorted for uniform color and freedom of defects, which should give any roaster a high degree of confidence entering their first roast.

Spectacularly, for a coffee this excellent and clean tasting, the cultivars are both old hybrids. “Tim tim” is just the local name for the Timor Hybrid, a spontaneous cross of arabica and robusta found first on its namesake island in the Pacific. The vigor it expresses against disease has made it a desirable ingredient when creating tasty arabica hybrids that can stand up to rust and climate change, e.g. One of the most popular of these is Catimor (Caturra x Timor Hybrid), and has numerous variations worldwide. While not often regaled by specialty roasters for their flavor, the cup here is proof that with care and attention to cultivation and processing there is incredible potential.

Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Chris Kornman & Doris Garrido

Not really sure of exactly what to expect with this coffee, I asked Doris to take it through the paces on her choice of machine on our standard pour-over analysis profile, and keep a close eye on any details and/or peculiarities the coffee showed. She chose our 5.5lb profile on the Diedrich IR-5, and made a few notes throughout the roast, outlined here.

With a high density and unique honey processing method, Doris elected to charge at a moderately hot 390F but wait to apply burner power until the coffee reached its turning point (though she did quickly open the airflow to 50%). At the turn, she gave it everything the roaster had, 100% burner power.

Everything seemed to progress pretty normally until about half way through Maillard reactions, when Doris noticed that despite reducing the burner power back to 30% the coffee continued to absorb heat from the four minutes at 100% power. Curiously, despite the quick pace exiting the color change stage, the coffee was quiet at first crack.

With the rate of rise still at 15F per minute at crack, Doris took the only course of action left to slow things down, and cut the burners entirely. The coffee coasted gently for about 90 seconds before dipping slightly into a negative heat delta just as she opened the drum door to end the roast.

Despite her concerns about the coffee’s challenges to control, the cup tasted excellent with lots of clarity, superb sweetness, and pleasant acidity. I noted candied ginger, fresh coriander, molasses, pomegranate, and sweet tea. After our barista team dialed it as a pour-over, we decided we liked it so much we plan to serve it as a light roast batch brew here at The Crown.

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 195C / 383F preheating, P2 power, F4 fan, and d6 drum speed. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing!

This is my first crack (chortle) at roasting a Sumatran coffee on the Bullet R1, and I couldn’t have hoped for a more consistent and solid candidate than this. This coffee is designated as dry hulled specifically because most coffees in this area of Sumatra are usually wet hulled, giling basah method of processing. Put simply, this coffee is dried in the parchment and hulled, rather than being hulled first before drying as a bare seed.

The lower moisture content and water activity make this coffee much easier to work with in the roaster. A dream, in fact. I started this 500g roast off a little hotter with a charge temperature of 392F, P2 Power, F2 Fan, and d6 Drum Speed. At turning point, I turned up heat application to P6, and left it there for the entire roast. That’s it! Other than increasing fan speed to F3, then F4 right before first crack, I made no other adjustments. Most likely my easiest roast of the last year, though likely also one of my longest at nearly 14 minutes.

The results were just what I was looking for with this coffee: 42% Green/Drying, 46% Maillard, and 10% Post-crack development. The sweetness came through so amply in the cup, it was like drinking milk chocolate. While my end temperature was just a touch higher than normal at 402.8F, this was still a solid medium roast with touches of raspberry cordial and mellow navel orange. That chocolate, though…

As Chris and Doris note above, the crack was rather quiet on this coffee. It’s entirely possible that I actually got a bit more post-crack development than stated here, as I decided to wait until a few pops had happened before marking first crack, even though there wasn’t a truly heavy rolling crack.

Regardless, this coffee was very high on the chuggability scale. Only a touch of the earthiness one might associate with Sumatran coffees is present here, while the chocolatey deliciousness of a holiday confection comes through much more succinctly. I’d recommend this coffee for full immersion brewing, filter drip, or espresso. Just drink a lot, whatever you do!

Here is a link to this roast on roast.world: https://roast.world/@egilman/roasts/y6Mv1n1OU5qAxq7XJZ3DE

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Doris Garrido

What I can say about this dry hulled Sumatra honey is that the huge effort on the processing end pays off excellently on the cupping table. Overall, my cups were clean, juicy, and fruity. I know that preconceptions about Sumatra coffee tend to be a little harsh but this honey can change your mind.

As I have been doing lately for Ikawa roasting analysis, I used two roast profiles: our Crown Standard sr 1.0 and Crown Maillard +30 sr.

My two roasts went well talking in terms of flavor notes, with only a few differences. The sugars developed well in both cases. I got a nice honeydew sweetness, soft and silky body with a red apple taste in the two roasts but I have to say that presents a little better in the standard profile. The Crown Maillard profile brings a little more coriander seed flavor, and dried fruits.

The difference mainly arises in the acidity. The Standard profile brings brighter acidity, pomegranate, kiwi; and the citric acid is more noticeable here. In the Maillard profile acidity is slightly less bright, but on the other hand this profile leaves us with a nice aftertaste.

Roast 1: Crown Standard sr 1.0

Roast 2: Crown Maillard +30 sr

Brew Analysis by Colin Cahill

Coffees from the rugged hills around Lake Laut Tawar have been some of my favorites, so I was especially excited to get my hands on this honey processed coffee in the tasting room. While we expect earthy and herbaceous notes from wet-hulled Sumatran coffees, we are encountering more and more unexpected flavors from Gayo (like parts of North Sumatra) which has experienced an expansion of other development methods in recent years. This one performed well on the cupping table, so we brought it onto our pour over bar to play with. For this analysis, I want to look at brews on the Hario V60 and the Fellow Stagg.

Working with our classic recipe, the brew on the V60 came through in a time that felt a little fast. On tasting it, we found a well-developed—if slightly over-extracted—brew with a TDS of 1.52. This brew was sweet and chuggable, with notes of juicy apple, vanilla, caramelized sugar, and a subtle herbaceous hint, reminiscent of sweet tobacco and coriander. This brew was slightly bitter and drying in the aftertaste. Brewing it up on the Fellow Stagg with the same recipe—pouring can be a little tight in this smaller device—we received a slightly softer brew with a TDS of 1.48. This brew featured layers of soft, sweet flavors. This brew was like biting a candy apple—sweet, fresh, and crisp, with subtle honey and floral notes. We also tasted plum, cantaloupe, soft tobacco, and chamomile. It didn’t take much work for us to get a clean cup of this coffee, and it was just a lovely brew for a slow afternoon.

We’ve been seeing more and more successful attempts at natural and honey processing from Aceh and North Sumatra, and this coffee is a beautiful example that we are excited to share with our guests here at The Crown.