BODHI Batak is a new crop comes from the growing region of Lintong in Northern Sumatra near the shores of Lake Toba. This is a sun-dried and triple-picked type of coffee. It features a grade 1 quality preparation along with a heavy body; a well known characteristic of the region.
Another factor would be the great acidity along with loads of clean and rich tobacco flavor, providing a long lingering finish. BODHI Batak is easily one the cleanest and most meticulously prepared Sumatras you will find.
As mentioned before, BODHI Batak is produced in the Lintong area, however it is one of several projects that Bodhi Leaf is involved with outside of their estate. Bodhi Leaf partnering with Volkopi will provide us with consistently high quality coffee for years to come.
Bodhi Leaf has received and continues to receive a year-round supply of fresh coffee because of Sumatra’s year-round harvest season. Bodhi Leaf, one of only two U.S. importers that Volkopi supplies, visits Sumatra at least once a year to maintain relationships and coffee quality.
Welcome to my Table, here in the corner of this cafe. Today we’re sipping the Sumatra BODHI Batak, from Craft and Mason Coffee Roasters in Lansing, Michigan. Feel free to pull up a chair.
THE BASICS:
region: Lintong, Sumatra, Indonesia
farm/factory: N/A
producer: smallholder farmers
association: N/A
elevation: 1800 meters above sea level
cultivars: Ateng, Timtim, Djember
process: wet-hulled
certifications: standard
THE COFFEE:
The aroma of the Bodhi Batak is very powerful. It overwhelms my nostrils with all sorts of defects: roast, carbon, savory, pepper…
Oh man. Wow. This coffee is too much. This is a full-bodied coffee that really doesn’t hold anything back—but I don’t mean that in a good way. My palate is absolutely inundated with flavors of musty earth, raw ginger root, tobacco leaves, black pepper, burnt sugar, alkaline, copper wire, peanut shell, and too much roast.
And these flavors don’t back off – not even when the cup cools. It’s a coffee that doesn’t quit… unfortunately.
Full body; chewy mouthfeel; no acidity; astringent finish.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The Sumatra Bodhi Batak, from Craft and Mason Coffee Roasters, is a coffee that I really wanted to like. I wanted to love it, because Batak coffees are typically some of my favorites. I like that they’re diamonds in the rough – these beautiful coffees with lush and juicy flavors from a region that is traditionally the laughing stock of the coffee world. Sumatra is notorious for being shrouded in mystery and the coffees from Sumatra are even more notorious for tasting terrible. But the Lake Toba area in Northern Sumatra – one can find some really exceptional coffee there.
So one can imagine my disappointment with this particular Batak coffee. It tasted less like a specifically Lake Toban coffee and much more like a generic Sumatran coffee. The beans themselves seemed to taste defective and the roast made it all the worse.
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Andrew is a husband, father, dog lover, craft beverage enthusiast, content creator, and niche market Internet celebrity. Formerly of A Table in the Corner of the Cafe and The Pulitzer Project and contributor to Barista Magazine and Mental Floss, he’s been writing on the Internet for years.