Or, Why You Can’t Find Light Roast Sumatra for Sale…

Ethiopia dry process medium roast

Sumatra Onan Ganjang cultivar wet hull medium roast

Note the difference! Both beans are processed leaving some of the coffee cherry on the bean while drying. This imparts interesting, complex flavors, but the roasted beans look pretty ugly short of a dark, dark roast. Sumatra wet hull coffees are notorious for looking uneven, mottled and less roasted than they really are. Besides the excess chaff that sticks to them, they look like a disaster. No wonder you won’t find these for sale in your favorite coffee bar! The Ethiopia, while having some of the same gradations in color at the same roast level, is so much more even looking! (The Ethiopian shown is dry processed, another process that leaves a lot of chaff on the bean and gives unique flavors to the coffee.) So why would anyone want to deal with the kinds of processing that leave part of the coffee cherry attached when dried? In a word, flavor!

There is no one way coffee is processed in the world. Every region has its own methods born out of tradition, weather and water availability. Central American coffees are generally processed in a way that removes anything that could “taint” the flavor. They are going for a very clean taste–crisp, well-defined, well-integrated flavor profiles. By contrast, Indonesians leave lots of hull clinging to the bean, and the processing method allows for lots of “environmental input” as the hull and cherry ferment in the heat or the beans dry on a tarp on the ground, for example. Sometimes these more rustic processing methods can lead to dirty, moldy, nasty flavors, but if care is taken with the beans, a rustic, savory, herbs-and-cedar or licorice note can be detected.  This is very unique and quite pleasant.

At NanoRoast, we choose wet hulled coffees* for the flavor in the cup, not what they look like. We will be happy to roast your wet hulled Sumatra or Bali dark-dark if that’s what you like, but you owe it to yourself to try one of these savory, rustic coffees with a bit more of the origin flavor showing. For those who aren’t sure, we offer our wet hulled offerings in a medium-dark roast (beginning of second crack, no oil on the outside) or in a melange roast, combining a range of roast levels so you can get the best of the dark and less dark.

*Origin offerings that use wet hull processing are generally those from India, China, Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi and the rest of Indonesia. Dry process is mostly used in southern Ethiopia (Yirgacheffe) and in Brazil, but those are another blog post.

Enjoy your coffee!

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