Creating Community Through Coffee in Indonesia

Creating Community

Through Coffee in Indonesia

How a small cooperative is making

a big change in partnership

with the AAA Sustainable Quality™

Program and Fairtrade.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Nespresso? For most, it would be something simple and obvious: coffee. And while coffee is at the center of everything we do, it’s a nucleus of a larger, much more complex and gratifying organism. It’s the core, the common thread that brings together communities, and in some cases, helps establish them. And this is exactly what happened on the island of Sumatra, the birthplace of the Master Origin Indonesia Wet-Hulled Arabica.

And while coffee is at the center of everything we do, it’s a nucleus of a larger, much more complex and gratifying organism.

1800 member farmers have joined the Ara Cahayani Gayo cooperative, paving the way for Fairtrade coffee and accountable and sustainable practices.

In July 2017, a new Fairtrade cooperative was established in Sumatra’s northernmost Province of Aceh, partnering with Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program right from the beginning. Our AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program seeks to support and empower farming communities, and this cooperative was the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Wet Hulling:

The climate in Sumatra is extremely humid, so farmers practice a uniquely Indonesian way of processing called “wet hulling”. Coffee cherries are harvested per usual, pulped, then fermented in bags overnight and rinsed clean the next morning. Instead of drying the now clean beans, the beans are hulled while still wet. They come out squashed and misshapen, a milky blue/green color, and smelling sweetly of fresh green peas. By doing this, the sun and heat can directly penetrate the green bean, allowing them to dry coffee quicker. And we like it because the resulting cup is perfection.

Wet Hulled Beans Close Up

Wet-Hulled beans are unique in the way they are harvested, and because of the technique become a milky-blue colour.

1800 member farmers have joined this cooperative and have called themselves Ara (this is) Cahayani (sun or light) Gayo (the geographic name of the region--the Gayo Highlands). And that is the hope: that they can be a light in this region, providing accountability and encouraging sustainable practices that lead to consistent quality in their coffee beans.

“ Nespresso and Fairtrade help our community to face the lack of social security and welfare. The cooperation is bringing benefits to thousands of farmers. “ -Fairtrade

Through the unique harvesting technique called ‘wet-hulling’, the cooperative has helped create a coffee masterpiece. Our Master Origin Indonesia Wet-Hulled Arabica is truly one of a kind. Unmistakably thick, rich in body with notes of cured tobacco and tropical perfumes--we’re grateful to be involved in the process of growing, harvesting, and encapsulating this bean. They say it takes a village to raise a child--we can say the same about coffee. And we love being a fellow villager.