7 Sumatra Coffees Reviewed and Ranked: Best and Worst Picks

Our 2020 taste test scored seven Sumatran coffees out of five. Peach Coffee Roasters' Lintong won at 4.8. See every score, which bags are still sold and what wet-hulling does to the cup.

By Jay Arr Updated

This article accompanies our video from September 2020.

In 2020 we tasted seven Sumatran coffees and scored each out of five: a Georgia roaster’s Lintong, Peet’s and Starbucks’ dark roasts, and four Mandhelings from online roasters. The scores and tasting notes here come from that video, where each coffee got an on-screen card with its star rating and its pros and cons.

A correction. An earlier version of this page had six of the seven scores wrong and called the tasting blind, which the video doesn’t say it was. It also named the sixth coffee “Camano Island Coffee”; the video’s card shows Koffee Kult’s Sumatra Mandheling. The ranking order was right, and the scores below are now the ones on the cards.

Our 2020 scores

CoffeeScoreWhat we liked, and the catch
Peach Coffee Roasters Sumatra Lintong4.8Cedar and sage up front, a spicy, earthy aroma, fresh
The catch: pricier, especially with shipping
Volcanica Sumatra Mandheling4.6Earthy and herbal; spice, brown sugar, chocolate; low acidity
The catch: costly
Peet’s Sumatra4.5Sweet, balanced, crowd-pleasing, low acidity
The catch: lacks some of the usual Sumatra character
Starbucks Sumatra4.2Spicy and earthy, smooth, medium-heavy body
The catch: very dark and oily; easily bitter
Coffee Bean Direct Sumatra Mandheling3.9Aromatic dark roast, chocolate and nut
The catch: not complex; a 5 lb bag
Koffee Kult Sumatra Mandheling3.5Deep, syrupy, rich; low acidity
The catch: stale batch, no roast date
Fresh Roasted Coffee Sumatra Mandheling3.25Medium roast, minimally bitter, bold
The catch: not fresh-tasting; cardboard and paper notes

The coffees, one by one

What each roaster sells now was checked on its own website on October 18, 2026. Coffee changes with every harvest, so a coffee sold under the same name today may not be the lot we tasted.

Peach Coffee Roasters Sumatra Lintong: 4.8

We saved the best for last in the video. The bag listed pineapple, cedar and sage as its three most characteristic notes; the pineapple was subtle, but brewed in an AeroPress it delivered a spicy, earthy aroma in spades and was truly a cedar-and-sage coffee. It was the best representation of Sumatra we tried: earthy, without being overpowering, and it would make a great everyday cup. If you’re trying to understand the Sumatran flavor profile, this is the one we’d start with.

Now: not in Peach’s current range. Coffee Review’s April 2019 review of Peach’s Sumatra Lintong placed it in the Lintong growing region of North Sumatra and tied its character to wet-hulling.

Volcanica Sumatra Mandheling: 4.6

Somewhat costly, but a consistent medium roast with Mandheling’s earthy, distinctive herbal taste: low acidity, a full body and notes of spice, brown sugar and chocolate. We found it the best Mandheling we sampled.

Now: Volcanica still sells a Sumatra Mandheling medium roast, USDA Organic as published by the maker, from the Barisan Mountains at 1,100–1,300 m, which its description calls semi-washed, or wet-hulled, although its product specifications say washed. It now lists toffee, lemongrass and dried fruit. A 16 oz bag was listed at $21.99 when checked October 18, 2026.

Peet’s Sumatra: 4.5

Like many of Peet’s coffees, this dark roast is a crowd-pleaser: pleasing and balanced, earthy yet sweet, and an easy everyday cup. Our only critique wasn’t the flavor itself but that its sweet-smelling profile lacked some of the usual Sumatra character. A great-tasting coffee and good value.

Now: Peet’s lists Sumatra as a wet-hulled, single-origin dark roast with notes of earth, herb and sandalwood. It showed as sold out when checked.

Starbucks Sumatra: 4.2

A pretty good coffee, spicy and earthy, that most people who like dark roasts would get on with: very tolerable low-toned notes of herbs and spices, with a medium-heavy body that came across as smooth. In our opinion the roast was a bit too dark, and the beans were quite oily, so watch your extraction time and the amount of coffee you use; its card warned it could taste quite bitter if over-extracted.

Now: Starbucks still sells Sumatra, a dark roast with “notes of rich herbs & rustic spice”, which it says it has offered since 1971.

Coffee Bean Direct Sumatra Mandheling: 3.9

An all-right whole-bean option, though not as interesting as Volcanica’s. Dark-roasted, somewhere between French and Italian, it was quite aromatic and smooth, with low acidity, a slightly oily bean and chocolate and nut flavors most people would find inoffensive, but not very complex or bold. We liked it less than Peet’s or Starbucks, though it tasted closer to a classic Sumatra. It came in a 5 lb bag, which is a lot to get through while it’s fresh.

Now: Coffee Bean Direct sells both a Sumatra Mandheling and a Dark Sumatra Mandheling, in 1, 2.5 and 5 lb bags. It lists the dark one’s notes as earthy and spice.

Koffee Kult Sumatra Mandheling: 3.5

Deep, syrupy and rich, with low acidity and inoffensive chocolate notes; the video credits the beans to the jungles of West Sumatra. It was an okay-tasting coffee, but the batch we had was quite stale: the bag had no roast date and little aroma, and the syrupy flavor was a bit overwhelming. Its low price made it an option for bargain hunters.

Now: Koffee Kult sells “Sumatra Mandheling (Giling Basah Grade 1)”, a dark roast whose page says it comes from North Sumatra, with notes of dark chocolate, molasses, cinnamon and brown sugar. Its FAQ says bags bought directly from KoffeeKult.com carry a roast date; bags bought through retail partners don’t.

Fresh Roasted Coffee Sumatra Mandheling: 3.25

Reasonably priced, but this medium roast lacked the distinctive Mandheling taste of the other beans. It was minimally bitter, with a bold character, but not especially fresh-tasting, and we picked up notes of cardboard and paper that were a distraction.

Now: Fresh Roasted Coffee still sells a Sumatra Mandheling medium roast, wet-hulled and sun-dried, listing cedar, heavy body and chocolate.

Why Sumatra tastes the way it does

Most coffee keeps its papery parchment layer until just before it’s shipped. Sumatra’s traditional process, giling basah (wet-hulling), doesn’t. Hoffmann describes it: the coffee is depulped and dried only to 30–35 percent moisture, rather than the 11–12 percent other processes reach, then hulled out of its parchment and dried again as a bare bean, which turns it a deep swamp-green.

In his Indonesia chapter, Hoffmann writes that the process significantly reduces acidity and seems to increase body, giving a softer, rounder, heavier cup, but also adds flavors that are sometimes vegetal or herbal, sometimes woody or musty, sometimes earthy. He’s careful about two things:

Our processing guide explains wet-hulling alongside the other methods, and our guide to Indonesian coffee covers the other islands.

Reading a Sumatran bag

Hoffmann lists Sumatra’s three main growing regions: Aceh in the north, the Lake Toba region a little to the south, and, more recently, Mangkuraja in the south. Coffee reached northern Sumatra in 1888, first around Lake Toba, and the Gayo highlands in 1924. The names you’ll see:

Freshness and our bottom two

Our two lowest scorers both tasted less than fresh. The Koffee Kult bag we had carried no roast date, and the Fresh Roasted Coffee tasted of cardboard and paper. Without a roast date you can’t tell how long a bag has been sitting. Our Freshness tool treats days 7 to 21 after roasting as a typical best window for filter coffee; a typical window, not a forecast for your bag.

Brewing a Sumatra

We brewed our winner in an AeroPress. For an 8 fl oz cup, our Brew Guide starts at 1:14 with 185°F (85°C) water, the temperature AeroPress itself recommends, then a short stir and a slow press from 0:30. If the cup tastes sour or bitter, change the grind first.

Which to buy now

Our winner is no longer sold, and Peet’s showed as sold out. Of the rest, by score:

Some links above are affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Sumatra makes a strong contrast with brighter origins: our Ethiopian and Colombian taste tests scored those the same way.

Sources

Share