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92

Papa Lin's Coffee Roasting

Toba Batak PB

Roaster Location: Yorktown Heights, New York
Coffee Origin: Lake Toba growing region, northern Sumatra.
Roast Level: Medium
Agtron: 46/57
Est. Price: $16.00/12 ounces
Review Date: June 2013
Aroma: 8
Acidity: 9
Body: 8
Flavor: 9
Aftertaste: 8

Blind Assessment

Softly pungent, delicately sweet and complex. Brown sugar, layered hints of sweet chocolate, cinnamon, blackberry, orange and flowers in aroma and cup. Softly tart acidity; rather light, silkily smooth mouthfeel. The delicate flavor notes consolidate but ring gently on in the long finish.

Notes

This coffee was grown by indigenous Batak people, who have been involved in coffee production since the practice was brought to Sumatra by the Dutch in the late 19th century. Coffees from the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra are admired for their complex earth and fruit notes that appear to result largely from unorthodox fruit removal and drying practices called “wet hulling.” This is a particularly refined example of the type. This sample consists entirely of peaberries (“PB”), a kind of bean that results when the coffee fruit develops only a single, oval bean rather than the usual pair of flat-sided beans. Peaberries produce a somewhat different (often better) cup than normal beans from the same crop, from which they may or may not be separated during grading. Papa Lin's Coffee Roasting is a very small, “nano” roaster located in Yorktown Heights, New York, that features customized roasting profiles for every customer. Visit www.papalins.com for more information.

Who Should Drink It

Moderately dark-roasted and delicately original variation on the Sumatra wet-hulled cup.

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This review originally appeared in the June, 2013 tasting report: Better and Better: Sumatras 2013

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