The coffee finishes with an strong, heavy-handed baker's chocolate, laced with tobacco and leather. There's a dark herbal note a bit like Riccola drops, sage, thyme. I wouldn't call it mossy (a flavour I do not like in Sumatras), but there is something intensely 'foresty' about this cup cedar, pine bark, somewhat resinous, with sweet tobacco and a hint of blackberry.

There's a very intense bittersweetness here too, a bit like butterscotch. It has strong chocolate roast tones, with accents of sage and thyme. The wet aroma has complex sweetness, bordering on spicy. The dry fragrance is intriguingly balanced between sweet and earthy tones, caramel sweetness, pungent notes, and the scent of fresh cut wood at a sawmill. This is a pungent, brooding, opaque, full-bore Sumatra. If you think a triple pick coffee, a carefully prepared Sumatra, necessarily loses it's Sumatra intensity, then this Lake Toba lot will disprove that notion.

Indonesia Mandheling is potent, bittersweet, herbal, and intense. Moderate body and gentle acidity, punctuated with herbal notes of nutmeg, spice and majoram

Sumatra arabica coffee