Timor-Leste Samoro - Filter

Timor-Leste Samoro - Filter

This is one of three beautiful washed coffees we have this year from Timor-Leste. It has been great to work with Kar-Yee and Stuart again this year in bringing the taste of Timor-Leste to Lucid. We had one coffee last year as part of an exclusive subscription, so this year we had to bring more to share with you all!

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• Producers + Mill:

This will be the second year that we have worked with Orlando (lead farmer) and the other members of the Samoro group who were incredibly motivated this year after seeing their coffee from the 2022 harvest being so well received in the speciality market. Lying slightly east of the Cristo Liurai mountain, this community experiences warmer ambient temperatures which in turn results in warmer water during processing. This allows for more concentrated fermentation which we have observed for a second year, produces a coffee featuring slightly bolder flavour notes.

Being in such close proximity to each other, all the members of the Samoro group encourage and support each other throughout the harvest to ensure consistency and continuity in their coffee processing. We have continued to support all the members of the group, to facilitate each household with all the materials needed to process high quality speciality coffee.

As a satellite group of Cristo Liurai, Luis Santos de Jesus (lead farmer of the Cristo Liurai group) has continued to mentor Orlando and implemented record keeping within the group. This allows for more precise and focussed fermentation times for consistency and also drying times in order for us to learn more about how processing needs to be adapted to allow for what climate change brings.

2023 has also seen us build our first seedling nursery in Eratoi, where together with Simao our field manager and lead farmer of the Eratoi group, we will be looking to cultivate new coffee and shade tree seedlings. For every 10kg of green beans that we sell to our partner roasters, we will commit to planting one new coffee or shade tree seedling which will be distributed to our partner farmers (including members from Samoro) for planting at a later date, so a big thank you to you for helping us to achieve this goal.

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• Varieties:

Timor Hybrid (Hibido de Timor)

HDT, which stands for Hibido de Timor, is also known as “Tim Tim”. Tim Tim in Indonesian stands for Timor Timur (East Timor in English), which used to be the 27th province of Indonesia before it declared its independence as Timor Leste.

HDT is a cross between Arabica and Robusta. It was first found in a plantation of cultivar Typica in Timor Island in 1917. It was then first collected in East Timor in 1978 and was planted in Aceh in 1979.

The variety is widely cultivated around the world today mainly for its good resistance towards leaf rust and has found extensive use as a gene source in different breeding projects with the purpose of breeding in a higher resistance towards leaf rust and other diseases. Some varieties emerging include: Catimor, Sarchimor in Brazil, Ruiru 11 in Kenya, Colombia in Colombia and Costa Rica 95 in Costa Rica. (Info source: Mercanta)

Typica

Typica (also Tipica) forms the genetic backbone of much of specialty coffee today. The first coffee plantations grown in America and Asia were of the Typica variety and many of the most widely cultivated C. arabica crops today are descended directly from the plant.

In general, Typica is very similar in appearance to the Bourbon plant (of which it is a very close relative) although it has fewer secondary branches and the leaves are normally smaller than those of Bourbon. It is usually identifiable by its bronze leaf tips. The plants are tall (3.5 – 4m) and the berries have an elongated, oval shape.

Even though Typica has a relatively low yield it is known to produce coffee with high cup quality. It is, however, very susceptible to diseases and is becoming increasingly less common for this reason. (Info source: Mercanta)

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• Process:

Each farmer will begin by selectively handpicking only the ripest red cherries from their plantations which is labour intensive work and requires multiple harvests throughout the season to allow those cherries that need it, a little more time to mature.

Once harvested, each farmer will then hand sort and sieve their cherries to remove any defects or overly small cherries. The cherries are then floated in a tank to further remove any defects with low density beans floating to the surface and removed due to either being under ripe or insect damaged. From here, they are then pulped (by a traditional hand pulping machine at individual households) to remove the skin of the cherry and the flesh of the fruit, leaving the coffee seed covered in mucilage which is again floated for a second time to remove any ‘bad’ beans that will float to the surface.

The mucilage covered seeds are now ready for fermentation and a ‘baldi’ is used (essentially a large bucket with a lid) to ferment the coffee. It is incredibly important that clean and fresh water is used in this process and this usually comes directly from nearby mountain sources which are plentiful in Letefoho. 20 kilos of coffee is fermented at a time, with the coffee left completely immersed in water (anaerobic fermentation) for between 40 – 44 hours whilst the natural sugars in the mucilage are broken down which contributes to the unique flavour development of our coffees.

Traditionally farmers will know that the fermentation process is complete when the coffee feels scratchy, similar to when pebbles are rubbed together. In addition to traditional methods, we also use Ph meters to confirm when fermentation is complete and the sweet spot for our coffee is between Ph 4.0 – 4.2. However, we have learnt over the years that a farmers’ intuition and experience is as good a tool, if not better, than a Ph meter. Once fermentation is complete, the coffee is then washed. This is an intense process which can require up to 8-10 washes in order to ensure that the parchment is ‘fully-washed’ and is crucial in order to achieve the clean cup profile expected and associated with our coffees.

(Some people may not be aware that the waste water produced from this process is highly acidic and can cause great damage to localised flora and fauna if not managed appropriately. With this in mind, the resulting waste water is collected in small channels filled with rocks that filter the water safely back into the ground.)

After the washing process is complete, the parchment is laid out on raised African beds to dry thoroughly under the warm Timorese sunshine. During this time, the parchment is continually turned to ensure even drying and further sorting is carried out to remove any further defects. The drying will normally take between 7-10 days and is regularly checked for moisture by our team until reaching between 10-11%. Karst will make weekly visits to each farmer in person to carry out checks to ensure consistency and continuity across all groups and every individual lot (bag) is checked to ensure that the coffee has been dried to the required level.

At this point, parchment is collected from every individual household and payment made directly at farmgate (2023 $3:25 per kg). From here, the parchment is transported to our storage facility where it is rested for a period of 4-6 weeks. QC continues with extensive cupping of all coffees and both moisture content and water activity (aW) are closely monitored with a goal to reach an equilibrium of approximately aW 0.55 to ensure the best possible longevity and freshness of the green coffee.

After the coffee has rested, the parchment is transported to our dry hulling facility in Timor-Leste’s capital city Dili. The dry hulling process essentially removes the layer of paper-like parchment to reveal the green bean. In addition to this, the dry hulling process will also remove any further defect beans and grade the coffee by screen size (15/16/17). Finally, a team of 60 staff will meticulously hand sort the beans to further remove any defects and ensure that the resulting coffee ready for export is of the highest quality (dry processing was completed at the end of September 2023 and exported at the beginning of October and landed into the UK in the middle of November).

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• Region: Rotutu, Letefoho, East Timor
• Producers: Samoro Cooperative (9 farmers)
• Importer: Karst Organics
• Price (green ex Shipping): £7.50 p kg

• Variety: Typica, Timor Hybrid
• Process: Washed
• Altitude: 1500-1600masl
• Amount Bought: 120kg

• Tasting: Tropical, Fruity, High acidity, Syrupy, High sweetness. 
• Flavours like: Guava, Cantaloupe melon, Ginger Cake