Indo-Pacific - Timor

Hemileia Vastatrix

More commonly known as “coffee leaf rust,” this fungus is one of the many persistent issues plaguing coffee farming. Coffee leaf rust is inevitable, unless a farm’s varietal is immune to it. Sadly, Maubisse’s wasn’t, and a rust epidemic destroyed their crop, but the replanting process did produce a brand-new varietal—Hibrido de Timor.

Cooperative Café Timor

The USDA and National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) of Indonesia helped form the Cooperativa Café Timor in 1994 in an effort to preserve coffee production in the region and enter the international market. The cooperative’s association with USDA and NCBA improves the lives of Timor farmers, all of whom oversee no more than a hectare of coffee producing farmland. They do this through management, marketing, financial, and health care guidance and assistance. CCT is also organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance certified.

Organic, Fair Trade, AND Rainforest Alliance Certified

The benefits of organic certification for the producers and the roasters are huge. Certification gives access to markets that might be otherwise unattainable, premium pricing, eligibility for grants, and other financial assistance, among many other opportunities. Fair Trade ensures fair financial compensation for their coffee, with a minimum Fair Trade market price plus up to a 20¢ premium per pound. The Rainforest Alliance Certified seal ensures that coffee is regularly audited to meet strict standards of social, environmental, and economic sustainability. These standards seek to promote and improve biodiversity, natural resource conservation, effective planning and farm management systems, and improved livelihoods and human well-being.

Washing and Drying

CCT coffees are fully washed and sun-dried interchangeably on patios and mechanically. Fully washed is typical of high-quality coffee. Washed coffee is all about the seed, not the cherry. Most specialty coffees are washed because this process gives the most true-to-origin experience, as the mucilage can impart syrupy flavors if left intact during processing. Mechanical dryers function a lot like coffee roaster cooling trays, in that they utilize a rotating arm that turns the coffee continuously. When the weather is favorable, the coffee is spread flat on cement patios to dry in the sun.

Fresh Roasted Coffee

Timor coffee is classically Indonesian with deep, developed flavor and dark chocolate notes. When roasted to a true medium like our organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance Certified Timor coffee you get subtle woody and herbaceous cupping notes through a relatively mild finish for a truly stellar cup of organic coffee.