Timor-Leste Rotutu - Filter

Timor-Leste Rotutu - Filter This is one of three beautiful coffees we have this year from Timor-Leste, but our first natural! It has been great to work with Kar-Yee and Stuart again this year in bringing the taste of Timor-Leste to Lucid. . ****************************************************** Producers + Mill: Situated in the western part of Letefoho, Rotutu is our flagship group with whom we were first introduced, back in 2017. Upon this first meeting, we recognised instantly the potential of East Timorese coffee and entered into a partnership with the community to elevate their coffee quality in order to open new opportunities in international markets, and ultimately maximise their earning potential. After 2 years of research and at the request of the community, we built the Rotutu processing facility in 2019. We then implemented a cherry purchasing model whereby the purchase price has continued to increase year on year and this year (2023) saw us purchase cherry at a 33% higher price than that of the local commercial price. Whilst we know that the highest price doesn’t always guarantee the best quality, in the case of Rotutu, this has incentivised members to take great care in selectively harvesting only the ripest red cherries for processing. Combined with the expertise of our team who we employ at the facility, together we have been able to see great improvements in the quality of the coffee which Rotutu has been producing since our partnership began. As the coffee sector slowly develops in Letefoho, so we have learnt to evolve and are now adapting our purchasing models based on the wants and needs of the community. Starting from this year’s harvest (2023) and in addition to purchasing their cherry, we are now purchasing parchment from those households who have requested a preference to process independently. This is largely due to our parchment price acknowledging the value of labour and also the farmers themselves wishing to respect their culture and taking pride in maintaining traditional farming practices. By distributing further materials to aid the members with their processing, we can ensure that the methods used and the quality of the parchment being processed is consistent with that of the facility. It is often thought that having centralised processing guarantees consistency in processing high quality coffee, however from our experience in the field, we can see that by implementing good controls and monitoring through weekly visits from us and our field manager – Simao Pedro de Deus, a parchment purchasing model can be as good as a processing facility. This close partnership with the members of the Rotutu group is a great example of how our work together has evolved and developed to the benefit of not only the coffee itself but our partner farmers as well. 2023 has also seen us build our first seedling nursery in Eratoi, where together with Simao, 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 Rotutu) for planting at a later date, so a big thank you to you for helping us to achieve this goal. ****************************************************** 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) ****************************************************** Process: Coming soon! ****************************************************** Region: Rotutu, Letefoho, East Timor Producers: Rotutu Cooperative (13 farmers) Importer: Karst Organics Price (green ex Shipping): £8.75 p kg Variety: Typica, Timor Hybrid Process: Natural Altitude: 1420masl Amount Bought: 120kg Tasting: Juicy, Crisp, high sweetness, Fruity, balanced acidity. Flavours like: Nectarine, peach & raspberry tea.