Sunda Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean within the Indonesian Archipelago. They consist of the Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands and are divided among five countries: Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, and Maylasia. In this blend, both coffees hail from Indonesia. One component is from the island of West Java. The other component is from the island of Sumatra near Lake Toba. Lake Toba is the world’s largest volcanic crater lake, and the result of the largest volcanic event of the last 25 million years. Coffees from this region are special and unique. The distinctness of the coffee can be largely be accounted for by the unique way they process coffee here known as giling basah, or wet-hulled, which leaves the coffee low in acidity but big on body and earth tones. Many smallholder farmers contributed to this lot.
The cup is an earth-tone laden cup that is big on body and deeply sweet with notes like carob, date sugar, pipe tobacco, cedar, and peat.
Brew tips
There are many ways to brew a great cup of coffee. Here are some recipes for a few different brew methods that we have found work well for this coffee.
auto-drip
Coffee to water/ratio: 70g coffee to 1120g water (about 10 cups)/1:16
Grind: coarse-medium
espresso
18g coffee in (dose according to your basket)
36g espresso out
37 seconds
french press
Coffee to water/ratio: 24g coffee to 300g water/1:12.5
Grind: coarse-medium to coarse
Water temp: 198-205 F
Technique: Pour to 300g, at 1:30 stir thoroughly (about 12-15 seconds) at 4:30 press and pour.
pour-over
Coffee to water/ratio: 19g coffee to 300g water 1:15.79
Grind: coarse medium
Water temp: 198 F
Technique: pre-rinse filter, bloom with 50g, after 30 seconds start first pour of 150g (200g total) going in concentric circles to thoroughly engage all the grounds then pouring hard into center with last 35-50g to create some turbulence and mix grounds around, once drained through start second pour of 100g (300g total) in similar manner as the first.
