Sumatra Lintong Dolok Sanggul

Sumatra Lintong Dolok Sanggul

Farm Description

Dolok Sanggul is a city within the coffee growing area we refer to as Lintong. Lintong Nihota is the town that has become synonymous with the entire southern part of the Lake Toba area and most of the coffee from the southern shores is sold as such. Lake Toba defines the landscape of the area, the largest volcanic crater lake in the world, and the result of the largest volcanic event on earth in the last 25 million years! It is huge, and the coffees from the north and eastern shores are quite different from the Lintong coffees. Dolok Sanggul is a local marketplace for coffees from the area; once a week the farmers gather to sell their parchment coffee to trusted vendors, who "collect" it on behalf of specific mills, or as freelancers. The mill we work with has certain farmers from higher altiitude areas, and who produce a very clean, high-quality parchment coffee. That's part of the reason this has great cup character ... the other is special milling and sorting practices. We offer the top grade, specially- prepared Lintong coffees as Blue Batak in honor of the Toba Batak people. Blue Batak is a near-zero defect preparation, without the usual split beans, broken pieces and crud found in standard Sumatras. It is carefully density sorted and triple-hand-sorted. And since my latest obsession is inspecting coffee under ultraviolet light while grading them, this lot still shows the normal wet-hulled issues, but is infinitely better than so-called Grade 1 Mandhelings and the like.

This coffee is part of our Farm Gate pricing program.

Cupping Notes

The dry fragrance has chocolate and caramel biscuit tones, but with a slight herbal and graham cracker graininess in the light roast. Lintongs have a reputation for herbal or herbacious notes; I would say Dolok Sanggul classifies as a Lintong in this respect, but is less herbal than most Lintong coffees. Surprising fruits come forward in the wet aroma, even a momentary whiff of dried plum and fig, as well as dark chocolate cake. The cup has a great rustic sweetness, tree bark, cinnamon stick, black tea, and strong mulling spice in the finish. Light roasts have a malty roast taste, thyme herb, fading to chocolate with plum/prune fruit. Full City roast level is more sagey, with dark malt syrup, and a thick slab of fruity chocolate flavor. The cup is more aggressive than the other Lintong lots we have this year, even though they come from areas that are very close to each other. As mentioned, it is also has less of the herbal notes in the cup flavor than other Lintong coffees, which I think makes it a better choice for use in espresso. In fact, the shots I have made from Dolok Sanggul have been really fantastic, like no other Sumatra I can think of ... but only when rested 5 days or more after roasting. It needs rest! Another roast note: many roasters over-roast Sumatras looking for surface color similar to other origins. They don't color the same as other origins, so you might end up darker than your target quite easily. Lighter Sumatra roasts can actually be more intense

Score

87.1

Lot Size

50 60KG Bags

Roast Recommendations

City+ to Full City+.

Processing

Wet-hulled

Varietal

Ateng     Djember     TimTim    

Grade & Appearance

.4 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen

Packaging

Shipped to us in GrainPro
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This coffee has sold out. The review is provided for reference purposes only.

Small holder coffee farmer in Lintong

Ripe coffee cherry in Serribu Dolok

Ateng Cultivar, Seribu Dolok
 

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