An Acehnese Specialty

Alex Frank

In a city engrossed in an ever present humidity, the coffee itself tasted almost like ice cream. Aceh, an Indonesian province, gets a place in the world's hall of fame for incredible coffee. Using high quality beans, grown in several of the province's more hilly towns, the coffee brewers engage in an extraordinary display of refined brewing techniques. The baristas entertain a series of straining processes in which they pour the coffee between huge pots and filters. What makes this process particularly engaging is the way in which they perform this task. Baristas in Aceh lift these huge pots in the air and toss the coffee back and forth between their tools.

The coffee is then served in a variety of styles. We had the two most popular styles - black coffee and Sanger, a coffee served with less milk than their standard milk coffee. Both coffees are served with a heaping amount of sugar, like all of their tea and coffee dishes. The Sanger had in addition to it a good portion of sweetened condensed milk. The result of which proved a huge contrast from my normal coffee preference of black coffee with no cream or sugar. While nine times of ten I would choose my regular style of brew, in the midst of a sunny, humid, Aceh coffee shop, I found this sweet style rather refreshing - as if I were drinking a carefully crafted artisan ice cream mess - not to mention that the warm treat did a great job at cooling me down.

 

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