Sumatra’s smallholder coffee is a complicated process, thanks in large part to Aceh’s very small farm sizes and consistently humid and drizzly climate that makes prolonged parchment drying impractical to do. Processing is typically not overseen by a single individual or team; instead, coffee moves task by task through different hands before reaching its final, fully-dried, state.

IKA follows the local processing customs closely, beginning with farmers picking cherry and selling to local collectors. Collectors aggregate cherry from their local neighborhoods and either process themselves, or deliver to local processors. In processing, cherry is for density, depulped, and fermented overnight. The following morning the fermented parchment is washed clean with spring water and spread out on tarps to dry directly in the sun. After the parchment is dry to the touch, often only a matter of hours depending on the time of day, it is transferred again to a local miller, who mechanically hulls the parchment from around the coffee seed, which is notably still has a moisture content close to 40% at this time (thus earning the coffee its “wet-hulled” label). The miller will proceed to continue drying the wet, naked coffee seeds on tarps under the direct sun.

Final dry milling is done centrally by PT. IKA in Takengon. The fact that they export from the city means containers are filled, sealed, and transported directly from the highlands to port with minimal time in Sumatra’s humid coastal city of Medan—in our experience an extremely key step for retaining quality in Aceh’s coffee.