Gayo Highlands

Gayo coffee grows on the volcanic slopes that ring Lake Laut Tawar in Aceh, where smallholder families tend a few hundred trees each between pine and shade cassia. Cherries are picked by hand, pulped the same day and then wet-hulled, the Sumatran method called giling basah: the parchment is stripped while the bean is still soft and damp, then dried on tarps in the highland sun. That shortcut through the drying stage is what gives Gayo its signature body, a deep blue-green raw bean and a cup with almost no sharp acidity. We roast it to medium-dark to pull dark chocolate and brown sugar to the front, with a dry cedar note in the finish that lingers after the cup is empty. It handles milk well, holds up in a moka pot and makes a forgiving, full-bodied kopi tubruk. If you are new to Indonesian coffee, start your seven islands here.