Side by side comparison

Sumatra and Peru

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First originSecond origin

The short answer

Sumatra tastes heavier and softer; Peru is lighter and brighter.

Sensory Contrast at a Glance

Sweetness

Sumatra●●

Peru●●●

Sparkle & Acidity

Sumatra●

Peru●●●

Body & Weight

Sumatra●●●●●

Peru●●

Sensory Radar Overlay

Sumatra
Peru

Relative to this catalog, not SCA scores.

Metric	Sumatra	Peru
Summary	Heavy, low-acid, and earthy: cedar, cocoa, and forest-floor notes. Pick this only if you want a deep, savory cup rather than fruit.	Clean and refreshing: soft florals and delicate fruit. A quiet cup if washed Ethiopias feel too loud.
Tasting notes	cedar, dark cocoa, fresh pipe tobacco, damp forest, licorice	jasmine tea, green apple, cane sugar, almond, soft citrus
Who grows it	Smallholders selling parchment to collectors and mills in Aceh and North Sumatra.	Smallholder cooperatives in Cajamarca, Amazonas, Cusco, and neighboring regions.
Producers in detail	Lots are often blended at a mill that buys from many gardens. Traceable Gayo or Lintong bags may name a cooperative. The farm-life image is raking drying seed on concrete, not a Kenyan washing channel. Sorting by hand after hulling is still part of the cup quality.	CENFROCAFE, CECANOR, and similar cooperatives made Peruvian smallholders visible to specialty buyers. A bag may name a cooperative, a district, or a women’s producer group. Traceability is often at association level rather than a single finca - still a real producer story, just a collective one.
Terroir	Tropical rainforest humidity, volcanic lakes (Toba) and highland basins (Gayo). Shade, clay, and wet harvest weather make slow, fully dry naturals risky - wet-hulling is terroir as method. Cedar and cocoa are the landscape in the cup.	Eastern Andean slopes facing Amazon humidity, or drier inter-Andean valleys. High farms in Cajamarca and Cusco give florals; jungle-edge San Martín lots can taste greener if altitude is lower. Shop for a highland region name.
Process	Often wet-hulled (giling basah), typical of Sumatra.	Often washed.
Process in detail	Cherry is pulped, briefly fermented, and dried only until the parchment is still damp. Hulling that wet parchment - giling basah - exposes a swollen seed that finishes drying on patios in humid air. The result is low acidity, heavy body, and cedar-herb notes. It is not a washed Ethiopia that went wrong; it is a different process chosen for a wet climate.	Washed Peruvian lots are pulped and fermented at small mills, then dried on raised beds or tarps. The profile is clean, floral, and lightly fruity rather than heavy or earthy - closer to a quiet Colombia than to Sumatra. Honey and natural experiments exist in Cajamarca and Cusco but are still the minority on export bags.
Brew tag	Filter or espresso	Filter
Bag cue	Look for Sumatra or Mandheling, earthy, low acid, dark cocoa. Gayo if Aceh is named.	Look for Peru, washed, floral or clean. Cajamarca or Cusco if a region is listed.
Cafe order	A Sumatra or Mandheling, the earthy low-acid one - French press or espresso, not a light pour-over.	A washed Peru, Cajamarca or Cusco if you have it - the quiet floral one, black, not heavy milk.
Milk	Black, Dairy, Oat	Black
Species	arabica	arabica
Altitude (light)	Mid-highland - often 1,100–1,600m	High Andes - often 1,200–2,000m
Altitude (detail)	Gayo highlands in Aceh and the Lintong / Mandheling areas around Lake Toba commonly sit 1,200–1,600m. That is respectable altitude, but wet-hulling and humidity mute the sparkle you would expect from the same elevation in Kenya.	Cajamarca, Amazonas, and Cusco specialty lots commonly grow 1,400–2,000m. That altitude supplies the soft floral lift; it is not as extreme as Nariño’s highest farms, which is why Peru stays gentle.
Varieties	Tim Tim, Ateng, Onan Ganjang, Gayo selections (when labeled)	Typica, Caturra, Bourbon, Catimor (when labeled)
Harvest	Long, staggered harvests; many regions pick across much of the year, with peaks after rains.	Often April–September in the north; timing shifts with valley and altitude.
Brew rec	French press or espresso. A paper pour-over can taste too thin. Medium-dark roast is traditional; very light roast can taste vegetal.	Pour-over or AeroPress, light-medium roast. Do not bury it in dark roast or heavy milk.