The Story of Ketiara Cooperative: Koperasi Pedagang Kopi Ketiara is a women-run cooperative that has over 890 grower-members. The Ketiara Cooperative was started in 2008 by Ibu Rahmah, the current chairwoman, and redefines what Indonesian coffee can be. Although they live in a strictly Muslim region, they’ve had the freedom to establish a co-op that is producing some of some of the cleanest, sweetest Indonesian coffee around. They are a perfect example of the incredible quality possible from Sumatra. Besides coffee, they farm avocado, orange, banana, pepper, ginger, turmeric and more. The current membership comprises over 836 hectares of arable land. A shade canopy and companion planting of staple food crops is found throughout the co-op, along with a broad diversity of wildlife including the endangered Sumatran tiger, elephant and orangutan.  If you’d like to learn more about the Ketiara Co-op, click here. Once picked, the seeds are wet hulled during their preparation and are then sun-dried and carefully hand picked before export. Wet Hulled process coffee is slightly cleaner than its natural process cousin, as it involves a soaking stage in water prior to being stripped of its hull. The coffee retains an exotic Indonesian character. Because of its heavy body this coffee is very versatile. And though we enjoy it black, even at our  unique light roast treatment, this coffee is a great choice for those who drink their coffee with milk or cream. The cooperative members voted to become organic and Fair Trade certified in 2012, making a commitment to use these proceeds to create programs for health, education, and public infrastructure projects that will benefit all co-op members.