The Gayo Highlands, which include Bener Meriah District and Central Aceh, have been known since the Dutch era as one of the best coffee-producing areas in Sumatra. Their coffee with Gayo Highland has even been patented by the Dutch, so it can no longer be traded under the same name by the Acehnese.
The main coffee products in the Gayo Highlands are robusta and arabica.
On the coast of Aceh, such as Tangse, Pidie, Lamno Aceh Jaya, they also have a special coffee known as kupi panah. Liberica coffee with the aroma of ripe jackfruit. However, Liberica is less popular.
Gayo people and Acehnese have not widely consumed arabica for a long time. Coffee shops scattered everywhere, serving robusta filter coffee. Even robusta powder is mixed again with corn, rice and milk.
However, over time, arabica began to be widely consumed. Sold at a high price for each glass. Arabica also has many derivative products. One of them sanger arabica.
Hutan Kota Coffee, which is located at Gampong Tibang, Syiah Kuala District, Banda Aceh, is a café with a biophlic concept. One of the coffee offerings that are excellent there is sanger arabica.
Sanger is a type of milk coffee that only exists in Aceh. As one of the best arabica producers in Indonesia, Aceh has a variety of derivative products from coffee, including sanger arabica.
Sanger arabica is a new variant of coffee blend. Previously, the famous sanger was made from a mixture of robusta and milk. It is sold at an economical price and is in great demand by students, who want to sip milk coffee, but money is limited.
Sanger arabica just emerged as a dish at coffeeshop, when coffee shops in Banda Aceh began to bloom providing arabica espresso. People who have stomach acid disease, can not consume sanger robusta. The coffee shop owner saw the opportunity. They also make an arabica sanger concoction.
If sanger robusta is sold at an economical price, then sanger arabica is sold at a fairly high price.
Likewise, sanger arabica which is sold at Hutan Kota Coffee.
Then, what are the advantages of sanger arabica Hutan Kota Coffee?
According to Adi, 34, the owner of HKC Tibang, the arabica sold in his place is selected coffee beans specially ordered from a coffee bean collecting agent.
Then it is processed specifically, with the aim of getting a distinctive taste that is not the same as coffee in other stalls.
“Prices are not expensive. In accordance with the quality we provide. Even now it is also favored by students," said Adi.
HKC is a coffee shop where students hang out at night. After every Isha prayer, the warkop will be filled with students from various campuses in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar.
Because it has a biophilic concept, HKC is comfortable for all people to visit. Both women, men, old and young, as well as across professions.
I visited HKC many times, just to hang out, or for work. This warkop also provides a very stable wifi service—except for a few conditions.
Every time I stop by, I always order the sanger arabica. Both cold and hot.
My wife also loves the sanger arabica here. According to my ex-girlfriend, the sanger at HKC matches her feminine spirit.
Likewise, the opinion expressed by Saifullah Hayati Nur. An alumnus of one of the universities in India, he always comes to HKC to sip coffee and get work done.
“I always order sanger arabica at HKC.”