Then there was the sample of triaged floor sweepings while at origin in Guatemala. To be fair, it was a motley bunch of ragged beans put together as a sample of defective coffee. Fermenty, wild, uncontrolled… it coulda been a decent Yemen. ;)

I’m inclined to agree with Jaime on this one.

What gives (most) Sumatran coffee its musty flavor is.. well.. dirt, defects, etc..

In short, you’re not really tasting the coffee. If you took any other coffee, and processed it the same way (dried on dirt patios, stored under less-than-idea conditions, and so on) I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t find TOO much different between the cups. Sure, there will be some, but they would be minimal since the dominating flavors don’t come from the coffee itself.

It’s interesting, really. I never accept a cup of sumatran, unless it’s from someone I really trust.

As to Sumatran coffees, it’s precisely those earth, wood, turf and mulch notes that make Sumatran coffees a happy departure from the crisp, clean acid of a Central American coffee, or washed African. And, they invariably remind me of autumn, and — a bit morbidly, perhaps — make me contemplate our mortality (…and to mulch thou shalt return.) ;)

Sumatran coffees are more dry than others? This is news! I’m wonder, then, if I should doubt my hypothesis that the Guat had changed its characteristics so because it had shed more moisture over time.

When coffees age, assuming there is no cross contamination and the coffee is no longer in jute… Florals fade off first and then fruit/sweetness. This is a big part of why I think so many don’t get washed Yirgs but that’s another debate.

I don’t value Sumatra coffees because the dry stale woody cocoa characters and the earthy, often musty flavors are just not high on my desirables list. I interpret those flavors as molds(defects), dirt(geosmine or other ground contaminants), and age(sometimes jute flavors too). If the same coffee was produced in central, south america, or Kenya, it would be rubbish.

But… Sumatra are easy easy to roast because they are drier to begin with, so you don’t have to spend time learning how to deal with the excess moisture and removing the grassiness or the resulting acidity of the common fast roast profile. At origin, the heat and humidity just gets in those coffees immediately. You don’t have to worry about erasing the florals or baking the fruit characters away because it was likely they were long gone.
-Jaime