Description
Overview of Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Situated in South-East Asia, approximately 1,000 miles east of Bali, lies the tropical island of Timor-Leste. With its lush green mountains and crystal-clear blue waters, this may look like an idyllic paradise, but the reality is that this small country holds a troubled and complicated history. Timor-Leste holds the unenviable accolade of being one of the few countries in the world to have been both colonised and annexed; colonised by Portugal from 1600s to 1975 and annexed by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. Having finally gained independence for a second time in 2002, Timor-Leste is now the world’s second youngest nation state and trying hard to find its voice in the geo-political world of the 21st century after centuries of subjugation.
Coffee was first introduced to the island by the Portuguese and by the 1900’s was the country’s leading export, however the industry suffered greatly during the years of Indonesian annexation when the sector was largely ignored. Fast forward to the present day and you will see that the coffee farmers of Timor-Leste are working hard to collectively carve out a place for Timorese coffee in the global speciality coffee market, in addition to replenishing and rehabilitating their coffee forests which were so overlooked during the struggle for independence during the latter part of the twentieth century.
One of the most special features about East-Timorese coffee is that it is all organically grown underneath the imposing Ai-Kakeu (Casuarina) and Ai-Samtuku (Albizia) shade trees that dominate the mountainous coffee growing regions. Only natural fertiliser is used (consisting of chicken poo, cherry skin and soil) to nourish the soil and due to the country’s lack of development and strong animist beliefs, chemical fertilisers have yet to be introduced into agricultural practices.
With time old traditions in processing coffee, passed on from generation to generation, coffee is gradually helping to build up more opportunities for Timorese people to create a consistent and sustainable income from which to support and provide for their families and the local community. Thank you for helping us to spread the word about East Timorese coffee and firmly putting this new and exciting speciality origin on the coffee map.
Eratoi Natural
Origin: Eratoi, Letefoho, East Timor
Producer Group: Eratoi Cooperative (40 farmers)
Lead Farmer: Simao Pedro de Deus
Altitude: 1800 masl
Varietal: Typica, Timor Hybrid
Process: Natural, African bed drying
Separated and Graded: Screen sizes 17-15
Eratoi
Eratoi is centrally located in the sub-district of Letefoho, where the coffee and our partner farmers are widely dispersed throughout a large area of land under the watchful eye of Timor-Leste’s most sacred mountain – Mount Ramelau. At an altitude of 1800masl, the Eratoi member’s coffee forests are all ideally located amongst the cooling shade trees, where the cherries are provided with a good balance of sun and shade, giving them the time needed to grow and mature slowly. With higher altitude comes marginally cooler temperatures, meaning that the cherries require a little more time to ripen.
With the Eratoi group being one of our longest partner farmer groups, we have continued to look for opportunities to expand further the different processing methods used to process their coffee and this will be our third year to process a natural coffee from Eratoi. With the consistent bold flavours coming from this group’s coffee, it makes perfect sense to build on this and offer a natural alongside the ever popular fully washed coffee which we have continued to offer year on year. By offering the members the opportunity to sell both their fully washed parchment and ripe red cherries, this allows them the chance to further increase their earning potential and gives them the autonomy to decide how to manage their income.
The Eratoi group continue to be led by Simao Pedro de Deus (also Karst Organics’ field manager) who takes great pride in seeing the growth in support which Karst’s partner roasters have given to his community and urges him on to further promote the high standard of picking and processing required to meet the expectations of the international speciality market. Together with our team, Simao checks every single bag of cherries from the Eratoi members and selects only the best quality cherries for this natural coffee which is processed at our centralised processing facility in Eratoi. The cherries are then sifted to remove any that are overly small and then washed and floated to remove any defects. They are then placed into sealed Ecotact bags for a 12 hour overnight anaerobic ferment, and the following morning, are then placed out to dry on raised drying beds. The drying was completed over two phases; the first phase saw the coffee cherries spread very thinly and dried in the sun, where the moisture came down from 68% to 25%. From this point, the coffee cherries were more deeply layered and for the next 20-25 days, were dried from 25% to 9.5% moisture. Once the optimum moisture level was reached, the cherries were then rested for 6 weeks before the final hulling process took place.
Whilst all processing methods are labour intensive and time consuming, with continued changes in climate, natural processed coffee in particular needs much longer drying times in order to reach the right moisture level. During the 2024 harvest, this natural lot took an average of 25 days of continuous drying, in comparison to around 10 days for fully washed coffees processed from the same group. This natural processed coffee does not disappoint, offering a deliciously juicy cup with red berry and hard candy notes.
The Timor Coffee Variety
The name “Timor-Leste” may sound familiar because the word “Timor” is also the name of a widespread coffee variety. “Timor” also appears in other varieties like “Catimor” or “Sarchimor”, names that, like their coffees, are hybrids of the two parent plants’ names.
It’s no coincidence the name “Timor” is so ubiquitous in our variety names, the first widely studied hybrid was found growing in Timor-Leste in the 1920s. The hybrid was the product of one Robusta and one Arabica plant mating. The resulting plant, which soon came to be known as Hybrido de Timor, after the island on which it was found, took on traits from both parent plants. The Timor hybrid was resistant to coffee leaf rust (CLR), like its Robusta parent, but also had higher cup quality, thanks to its Arabica parent.
The discovery of the Timor Hybrid coincided with the expansion of CLR across most of Central and East Africa and Asia. Since CLR spores can remain in soils long after the infected plants die (making it difficult to replant the same varieties), new CLR-resistant hybrids became essential to revitalizing coffee production in these regions. Since Timor’s discovery, scientists have bred countless other hybrid varieties to combat the CLR epidemic and the older Timor variety has played a central role in continuing to breed new resistant varieties with good cup quality, such as Marsellesa, Obata and Oro Azteca, to name a few.
Information and Pictures supplied by Karst Organics
How to store coffee at home
To keep your coffee as fresh as possible, you need to protect your coffee from air, sunlight, heat, and moisture. These all will contribute to making it stale and lose flavour.
We suggest keeping your coffee in an airtight container, in a cool, dry cupboard. Our bags all have a de-gassing valve, to let out CO2 that the beans produce once roasted, it’s not just there to sniff the coffee, and a reusable ziplock. So if you don’t have a fancy coffee jar just push the air out the bag, zip the lock and give the bag another squeeze to get any remaining air out.
Do not store your coffee in the fridge. Roasted coffee absorbs moisture from the air (hygroscopic) and will also take up surrounding aromas. The aromas and moisture levels in the fridge will react with the coffee and delicate flavours will deteriorate.
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