Asman Arianto Ribang Gayo Musara

Sumatra island is the largest Indonesia island and the sixth largest island in the world. It has the equator running through its centre, at West Sumatra and Riau provinces, and its length of 1,790 km stretches 6°N and 6°S of the equator. Parchmen & Co have previously featured a few coffees from Sumatra, namely Simalungun, on the east of Lake Toba, at the same latitude as Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Samosir Island inside Lake Toba. A fun fact is that Samosir Island is just slightly smaller than Singapore. The famous coffee in north Sumatra is the Sumatra Mandheling, a common trade name to refer to Sumatra coffee processed in a wet-hulled method (giling basah). Such a special coffee process is practised by the Mandailing people who speaks Batak languages. A prized Mandheling coffee of that area is the Blue Batak, a traditional coffee that has a dark bluish hue and which is produced by the Batak tribes. A wonderful name for a coffee, it not only captures the special method of coffee processing and also relates to the geography and culture of the people.

Due to its vast size and length, Sumatra's weather pattern differs in the north and south of the equator, with the north being wet all year round, particularly from October to January, while the south tend to have a distinct rainy season for six months from October and drier weather for the other half of the year. Coffee harvesting happens in September and October for Sumatra, during the rainy seasons. While the wet processing of coffee was traced to the West Indies Process (WIP) in the 1700s, the producing trees were saplings and offspring from coffee trees in Batavia of Java, modern day Kedawoeng estate in Jakarta. When the Dutch introduced coffee cultivation to Java earlier in 1696, the method was sun-drying, a process which lasted till today. The lack of sunlight and wet weather during coffee harvesting months prevented quick drying of the coffee cherries without the development of mold. The intuitive method was to remove the coffee pulp while the cherry was still wet so as to dry the coffee seeds directly under the limited hours of sunlight before the rains came again. This gave birth to giling basah. Such a practical method often cast a shadow of defective flavours like earth or mushrooms. Add to the fact that the heirloom coffee varieties often roast fast and dark, characterising as dark roasted bold coffee without acidity. A student of specialty coffee is often torn between loving it or hating it.

Asman Arianto is originally from Palembang, South Sumatra. He came to Aceh region in 1998. 3 years after moving to Aceh, he purchased a land to grow coffees with his wife. However, the on-going Free Aceh Movement disrupted his coffee plans. According to Wikipedia, "(t)here is a cultural and religious difference between Aceh and the rest of Indonesia. A more conservative form of Islam is practised in Aceh than the rest of Indonesia. The broadly secular policies of Suharto's New Order regime (1965–1998) were especially unpopular in Aceh where many resented the central government's policy of promoting a unified 'Indonesian culture'." Further, given the location of the province at the northern end of Indonesia, there is a widespread feeling in the province that leaders in distant Jakarta do not understand Aceh's problems and have little or no sympathy for local needs and customs in Aceh." The Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami on 26 Dec 2004 dealt the final blow to his farm, and he abandoned it in 2005. 

Things took a positive turn when trading and commence started to flourish after the tsunami. Sensing opportunities, Asman resolutely returned and rebuilt his coffee farm. In 2008, he started to harvest only mature cherries to differentiate himself from his neighbours. With his coffee evidently tasting more balanced, cleaner and clearer, his effort eventually translated into higher prices and better profits. Today, he owns 13ha of land and even established Ribang Gayo Musara cooperative in 2018. In a short span of time across the COVID years, the cooperative now has 350 smallholder members. The benefits for cooperative members are threefold. First, they get higher prices for the cherries they deliver to their processing facility.  Second, they receive end-of-season ‘second payment’ premiums that share a portion of profits earned for higher-quality lots. Finally, the cooperative provides training and outreach for farmers in everything from cultivation to processing.

The cooperative is reflective of its land. Ribang is an archaic Bahasa Indonesia word which means to bind tightly, expressing his hope that the coffee tradition and his community of the land will endure the test of time. Gayo is an endangered Austronesian language spoken by some 275,000 people in the mountainous region of the Aceh province. The cooperative was set up in Pantan Musara, a village in Pegasing District of Central Aceh Regency, Aceh province.

This coffee is from Asman Arianto's own farm, located at 1,500 - 1,700m. It produces two crops a year - the main crop in Oct-Dec and a fly (smaller) crop in April-May. Following the tradition of Sumatra, ripe cherries are rested for a night in tied-up bags, followed by drying the whole cherries on African raised beds under shelter.

Ribang Gayo Musara is a Cup of Excellence winning producer. In the inaugural Indonesian competition in 2021, Ribang Gayo Musara had 3 winners, coming in at 1st, 3rd, and 23rd place. In 2022, out of the 23 winning coffees, 9 are from Ribang Gayo Musara, from which #7 was Asman Arianto's honey process coffee, with a score of 88.68. In 2023, #11 was from the cooperative.


Roast Level
We have roasted this coffee lightly. This coffee is cleanly processed and showcases fruity notes that are best presented in a light roast. The greenhouse sun-drying facility dries out the coffee more, resulting in lower moisture but high density. We are careful to control the roast to avoid fast roasting or even ROR 'peaks' so as to bring clarity to the desired fruity notes.


Brew Flavour
We are using the origami brewer on a kalita paper, at 16g @ 780 μm to 255ml of 87°C water to brew this coffee.  To contextualise the grind size, it is slightly coarser than the usual and is closer to the size of table sugar.

On a 3-day-old roast, the dry fragrance is dark chocolate, roasted almond and berries. The brew is like an orange juice - round and sweet, with notes of orange, grapefruit and orange peel on sugarcane sweetness, slowly cooling to notes of berries like gooseberries and blackberries, with hints of hibiscus and roselle lasting into the afterflavour. The body is medium and the flavour is balanced, without bitterness and with sweet acidity that makes a Gayo coffee exciting.    This is our brew recipe:

0th sec - Add 50g of water
30th - 120th sec - Add 85g of water to 120g
130th - 170th sec - Add 130g of water to 250g
Bypass 10g


All coffees will be in whole beans. If you require the coffees to be ground, please inform us in the order notes whether you wish it to be: espresso, moka, filter or cold brew.