One unique aspect of this particular Sumatran coffee coop, is that they focus on processes like fully washed, natural (dry process), and honey, in addition to the traditional wet-hulled that you mostly find from Sumatra. Farm altitude in this region starts at 1500 meters on the low end and tops out around 1700 meters above sea level. This lot is made up of small-holder coffees in the Pantan Musara region of Aceh, who belong to a coffee cooperative called Ribang Gayo. I highly recommend trying this coffee as espresso! A slight adjustment to my grinder, and I landed on a very nice flow rate for a short ristretto shot, which proved to be a tad brighter than the first one, and the chocolate/almond flavors were much more distilled down into the cream-textured liquid. My grind was a touch too coarse my first go, but still produced a nice flavor profile of chocolate-almond. Delicious! I pulled two really nice shots with my Full City roast after 5 days of rest. There was also an herbal note in my darker roast that brought to mind sage-infused chocolate. Full City roasts develop a delectible low tones, the roast bittering bringing up an assemblage of chocolate flavors in the middle and finish. The cooling cup yields flavors of baked goods, with something like butternut squash cooked with brown sugar, and impacts the aftertaste too.

Ribang Gayo boasts moderate acidity relative to the origin, with a note of apple amidst toasted sugar overtones. The wet aroma is permeated with toasted sugar sweetness that resonates in the steam, along with torched sugar notes like a flambe'd dessert. The dry grounds show molasses and caramel sweetness that leads into creamy custard, with soft herbal hints in the back end. That's not a good or bad thing, really, but a fact worth pointing out since traditional processed Sumatras can be quite polarizing to coffee drinkers due to their characteristic earthy flavor profile (though we love them!). This wet process lot from Ribang Gayo is a well-balanced coffee, and a lot more refined than the standard wet hulled Indonesias.

Gayo sumatra