Our third season buying from Aulia Kahfi in Bebesen, Sumatra, and a coffee we’ve been waiting for the right moment to release on its own. Aulia farms a small plot at Rakyat Farm, as well as buying ripe cherry from around 15 neighbouring producers while taking responsibility for the processing himself. We’ve most often found a home for his coffee as one of  components of Colourful, but every year it has stood out on the cupping table in its own right. It has always been our intention to give one of Aulia’s lots a proper single-origin release, and we couldn’t think of a better place to do it for the first time than with our friends at Dog & Hat.

For this lot, ripe cherries are carefully sorted before a 72-hour sealed anoxic fermentation, followed by around seven days of drying on covered patios and raised beds. Aromatically it’s wild and distinctly Sumatran - herbal and savoury, with lavender and blue florals alongside port wine and dark chocolate. In the cup it’s surprisingly clean and intensely fruity; we find loads of purple fruit and prune, huge watermelon gummy, strawberry and sweet melon, with a softer milk-chocolate sweetness underneath. As it cools, a little spice and something almost orange-wine-like starts to appear. Big, funky and very much of its origin, with a clarity that caught us slightly off guard but we welcome whole-heartedly. A coffee we’ve loved working with for the past three seasons, and one we’re incredibly excited to finally release as a single origin in its own right.