Sumatra Sidikalang Tabu Jamu

Fratello Coffee is introducing a new Sumatran coffee to our clients. The Sumatran Sidikalang Tabu Jamu will be available to everyone in early August. We have been exploring the Lintong region this year and had recently been promoting a coffee from there. We have been fine tuning our sourcing skills and are narrowing down the specific regions we want to work in.

We found that this natural processed Tabu Jamu had chocolate cinnamon and toffee aromas with a lingering syrupy body, followed by mild earthy and clean flavors of smoked red apples. We gave this a cupping score of 88.

If you want to know where the arabica growing areas are in Sumatra, it is easy to find them on a map using Lake Toba and Lake Tawar as reference points. Both lakes are located in the volcanic highlands of Northern Sumatra. Tabu Jamu was purchased by the private exporter Yudi Putra.

Yudi Putra is in the town of Sidikalang which is situated on Lake Toba. Lake Toba is the massive, doughnut shaped lake. A tremendous amount of coffee is grown around this lake, primarily along the Western side. In recent years full sun hybrid coffees have been introduced here.

They take great care in the preparation of all coffee and this particular selection was processed with a Double Pick – Hand Selection (has passed through the grading process twice to ensure only the best beans pass through) creating a much cleaner, more acidic cup profile than the traditional heavy earth profile found in Mandhelings.

In this area, a Tabu Jamu is a “doctor” of sorts, more like a Shaman found in the Amazon. Both the Tabu Jamu and Shaman’s can be spiritual leaders as well as practitioners or of herbal healing. A Tabu Jamu can be seen traveling by bicycle through villages and towns, with a chest of spices and herbal remedies. It is up to the villager to approach the Tabu Jamu when they are not feeling well. The Tabu Jamu will then mix up a healing remedy.