Coffee knowledge about Sumatra

Manning Coffee

In the minds of most of us, manning coffee is almost the same as Sumatran coffee or even Indonesian coffee. Moreover, our general impression of it is: high mellow, low acidity, and with some herbal and earthy smell. As for the latter, I will focus on the diaries and events held in Sumatra. I just want to talk about the division of producing areas here.

(this figure is taken from the network)

The Mantenin producing area is in the south of Sumatra. But in the early days, they would transfer the harvested raw coffee beans to Medan and then export them. So, like mocha, Sumatran coffee has been synonymous with manning coffee for quite a long time. However, with the gradual popularity of the third wave of boutique coffee, gayo in northern Sumatra, that is, Aceh province, central toba, and SP bolon producing areas have their own characteristics, so officials now refer to Mantenin in southern Sumatra. Of course, as has been said in the past, Manning, representing Sumatra, is not completely wrong. But it would be a common sense mistake to include Java, the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Golden Manning

Gold manning is very familiar to many of our friends. But the naming of Golden Manning may not be what many friends think.

First of all, golden manning does not refer to the color of golden yellow, but to large-size coffee beans, that is, coffee beans with more than 19 mesh, which is called golden manning. But as many suppliers find that there is no direct relationship between large size and taste, fewer and fewer people order gold manning.

As for why Manning's old beans are golden, it is because Medan, the coffee transfer station, is very wet (more than 80% of the tide). If you have stored coffee for more than 6 months, the reason why the coffee will return to moisture.

Grading of Sumatran coffee beans

We often hear 'Super Manning', while at the same time, Manning's coffee raw beans are of poor quality. In fact, coffee in Sumatra is graded more systematically.

As shown in the figure, in every 300g

No more than 11g with physical defects is called GR1. According to the traditional selection of raw beans in Indonesia, this has to be screened at least twice.

If there is a 12-25g defect, it is GR2. Below is GR2 in the sack.

If we see the coffee beans in the picture below, it's under GR4. Therefore, if we receive such raw beans and claim to be first-class, it is obvious that the raw bean merchants are not responsible.

Raw bean screening workshop

Of course, people will ask, if you only pick raw beans, what are the chemical defects? This is a big topic, but I have to say that there is still coffee soft power in Indonesia. Professional cup surveyors and even Q grader are very strict with the quality control system. I will elaborate on this later.

Cup test, different producing areas, different sacks, different months of harvest, different treatments. Basically this is the norm, thus tracking the quality of each production area and time.