About This Coffee
This lot was produced in the villages of Tangkul, Colol, and Cumbi. East Manggarai Province is among the highest elevation for coffee production in Flores. Our second season working with these producers coincided with one of the lowest yielding harvests in history. The region is blessed with fertile volcanic soil, but an unusually prolonged rainy season in 2019 resulted in very poor flowering and fruit set.
Despite the situation, our involvement with the community helped fuel in improvements in quality and processing. Together we mapped out top micro-regions, improved protocol for drying, and implemented stricter quality controls. By combining forces, we were able to increase coffee quality so that higher prices for quality could offset the income losses from lower crop yields. In the coming years, we intend to continue working with farmers in the region to maintain coffee quality and bring higher income, especially as yields recover.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Farmers selectively handpick ripe cherry. They float cherry to remove those of low density and then pulp ripe cherry in hand-cranked pulpers. Coffee ferments for 36 to 48 hours and then farmers wash parchment in clean water before laying it to dry in a newly constructed
hand-pulped, floated, fermented for 36-48 hours, washed and then dried in the newly constructed solar drying house.
About Flores
Flores is one of the smaller islands in the Indonesian archipelago. It is only 580 kilometers long. The island is located 320 kilometers to the east of Bali.
Most coffee production on Flores is generally situated on the rugged slopes of the island’s many active and inactive volcanoes. Volcanic soil is fertile and verdant and helps with high-quality coffee production.
Production on the island is predominately shade-grown, and historically, semi-washed home processing had been the norm. However, due to industry growth, this traditional processing has increasingly given way more to Fully washed and Wet Hulled methods
Coffee in Indonesia
Indonesia has a long coffee producing history, but recently their coffees have been overlooked by the specialty market. Thanks to our innovative and ever-expanding supply chain, we are proud to bring you high-quality coffees from many of Indonesia’s unique regions, accompanied by in-depth traceability information.
Indonesia is perhaps best known for its unique wet hulling process (giling basah). Though its exact origins are unclear, wet hulling most likely originated in Aceh during the late 1970s.
Wet hulling’s popularity can be attributed to producers’ need for prompt payments. It was also adopted specifically by many producers who lacked the drying infrastructure that was needed to shelter drying parchment from the high humidity and inconsistent rainfall typical in Sumatra. At higher elevations with constant humidity and unpredictable rainfall, drying can prove to be slow, risky and difficult.