Origin Stories: Aceh Province, Sumatra

May 9, 2025

The Resilient Bean: An Origin Story of Sumatran Coffee from Aceh Province

If you happen to walk along the remote coastline of the Aceh Province in Sumatra, an island renowned for its distinctive Indonesian coffee, you will be first pulled in by the beauty of earth kissing sand kissing beach. When the honeymoon is over and closer attention is paid, you are unsettled into the realization that this coastline you are walking might have been very different not so long ago. While trees and shrubs dot the sandy edges, crawling roots dipping into the water, you note they are baby trees. This beach was not always a beach. Here a giant swathe of land was quickly cut away, smooshed into oblivion, swallowed whole by the Indian Ocean. Around you, vacationers line up to the small boats promising scuba diving and snorkeling adventures. There are many little remembrances of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami that rocked this island. Though paradisial, the island seems destined for upheaval. Situated in the path of one of the most notoriously disastrous volcanoes on the planet, Krakatoa, Sumatra, is possessed of a menacing beauty. However much it reshapes itself, the dark, rich, Sumatran arabica coffee beans that are grown and processed here, are nurtured in the aftermath, a testament to the land's gritty determination.

Aerial view of the magnificent Lake Toba, occupying the caldera of the Toba supervolcano, on Sumatra. Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Pexels.

Aceh Coffee: A History Forged in Volcanic Soil and Resilience

The 2004 tsunami and earthquake remade Aceh Province, so it cannot be pushed to the side of the plate, here. Yet, disaster is not the only element that marks the province in history. One of those things is Aceh's rich history of coffee bean growing, which we’ll discuss a little further. It is thanks to the colonial Dutch East India Company that Arabica coffee beans were first introduced to the area in the 18th century with the intention to grow the much-loved Bourbon variety. Those guys were wrong about a lot, but right on the money about Aceh coffee growing due to Aceh’s extremely fertile volcanic soil and higher elevation at 1,200 - 1,600 meters, especially near Lake Tawar, historically. Aceh's coffee production did so well, that by the time Krakatoa went off and caused near world-wide volcanic winter, it continued on, and with flourish. Coffee is still one of the best known crops to make it out of Northern Sumatra, and Sumatran coffee beans are more famous than anything else about it. Except for maybe the 2004 disaster. Just to put this in perspective: The BBC did a piece on the tsunami damage twenty years after, in 2024. That’s how complete the destruction was and how ongoing recovery continues to be.

“On 26 December 2004 at 07:59 local time, a magnitude 9.1 undersea earthquake struck 240km west of Sumatra, Indonesia, rupturing the greatest fault length of any recorded earthquake (1,500km long), and releasing energy equivalent to 23,000 atomic bombs.” — Simon Urwin, for BBC

Twenty years onward, Aceh Province has surprised the rest of the world, who only saw the disaster, not the resilience. But resilience is in the blood of those who live and work here, and visitors today are greeted with an abundance of both beauty and spirit.

Mount Sinabung stratovolcano in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Fikry Anshor on Unsplash.

The Sumatran Sip: Gayo Coffee, Wet Hulling, and Unforgettable Flavor

After so much destruction, vegetation did return to grace the face of Northern Sumatra. Albeit very slowly. Coffee production recovered in places and continued in others. In addition to the Bourbon variety, Tin Tin, Catimor, and Ateng varietals make up the renowned Gayo coffee from Sumatra that we enthusiasts know and cherish. The unique Gayo coffee, being sourced from several small villages around the Central Gayo Regency, is processed in a unique fashion known as the Sumatran Wet Hulling or ‘giling basah’ method. After a June - September harvest, the freshly-picked coffee cherries are de-pulped by local machinery, many machines having been in use for decades, used over and over again by farming families. The cherries are then painstakingly placed in bags to dry overnight through fermentation. Before they get a chance to truly dry out (hence the name Wet Hulling), the still-damp cherries are removed from those overnight bags the very next morning by the local farmers and washed to remove the remaining pulp. They are then given a very quick dry by normal standards and then carefully hulled at a hulling station. Since the fun for them never ends, they are left out to their own devices to dry on sun patios and raised beds to 12% moisture levels—a true labor of love for these hardworking folks. This unique wet hulling processing is what makes Sumatran coffee beans so appealing to coffee roasters and delicious to those who delight in the signature earthy flavors of a low acid coffee.

Freshly harvested Gayo coffee cherries. Photo by Pexels from Pixabay.

There are few pleasures out there that compare to drinking a cup of freshly brewed authentic Sumatran coffee, with its spicy chocolate scent and its creamy, full bodied flavor. Rich molasses, maybe, the notes of which can be detected. Or dark chocolate and fruits. My hands have no problem cradling a mug of this stuff, staring at my computer at the before and after shots of the changes to the coastline following 2004. The only thing that looks the same: the Indian Ocean, so endlessly blue. I can almost forget how fast things change out there. I might be forgiven for the coffee-induced amnesia when it comes to learning about this crazy-beautiful place, but I don’t think there are many who could make the mistake of ever getting too comfortable for too long there.