Sulawesi Toraja A – Green Unroasted

Taste: In our opinion, Sulawesi Toraja is an anomaly among Indonesian coffees – in a good way.  Our sources in Sulawesi meticulously produce a bean that tastes clean, savory, and has a creamy mouthfeel and caramel sweetness.  If you are looking for something earthy, meaty, and raw our Sumatras are excellent.  But if you want a fine drinking Indonesian, Sulawesi will be a very pleasant experience.

Roast: Avoid dark roasting this bean.  Its best at Medium (City Roast) – stop about halfway between 1st and 2nd crack.

About: The most famous coffees from Indonesia are those from the island of Sumatra, and are processed as Wet-Hulled, orgiling basah, which lends them their characteristic earthy, savory, almost meaty flavors. Sulawesi, on the other hand, primarily produces Washed coffees for export, and our partners at PT Toarco, a Japanese-Indonesian joint mill and export venture, are expert at producing clean, sweet, fruity coffees we simply love.

Toarco owns Pedamaran Plantation at 900–1250 meters, and also and purchases wet parchment (at 40% moisture) coffees from small producers at collection points in Perangian, Pango Pango, Minanga, and Perindingan. Once collected, the coffee is trucked to Pedamaran Plantation immediately after purchase, where it is dried using mechanical Yamamoto vertical dryers as well as Pinalhalense guardiolas, or horizontal dryers like those found throughout Colombia. The mechanical dryers assist in maintaining uniform drying, and helps the processing go more efficiently and cleanly. The drying typically takes 72 hours.

If a producer wants to sell their parchment coffee to Toarco, they need to get certified to the quality standards as far as selective picking, storage, transportation, moisture levels, etc. Farmers are issued ID cards that allow them to sell their coffee at various purchasing points in the Tana Toraja region during the market week. PT Toarco is focused on providing education and support to its producer partners: Currently, the company offers once-yearly classes for producers to receive their ID cards, but they hope to expand their educational opportunities to twice yearly and include things such as cherry selection, planting and picking techniques, and fermentation. They also hold a party at the end of the harvest cycle to celebrate, giving out awards to producers such as depulpers and other necessary tools: About 150 to 200 producers attend the party every year.

Most of the coffee produced in Toraja is S795 variety, developed in India to be resistant to leaf rust. The genetics of this variety is Typica and Liberica; even though it has genes from Liberica (a species of Coffee often thought to be lesser quality than Arabica), we’ve seen 88+ and 90+ cups in these coffees. Toarco is meticulous at sorting the coffees, and our lots come from smallholder producers at the higher-altitude areas.

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