Roasters Choice

Detailed cup profile

From its position in the Timor Sea on the North West tip of Australia towards the numerous islands of Indonesia, this high altitude, shade grown, sun dried fully washed coffee delivers a fairly unique flavour profile.

Our roastmaster describes it as a rare drinking experience, its low acidity allows the sweet notes to shine through a little. It has a light mouthfeel, but is balanced, with some interesting nutty and chocolately notes.

This comes from the climatic conditions and high altitude of the coffee plants. Timor-Leste’s coffees come from small lot farms and are almost entirely wet-processed.

Background story

A tiny island nation situated between Indonesia and Australia, Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is one of many Malay Archipelago islands and is home to 1.3 million people. Despite exporting just 1000 tonnes only of coffee each year, it’s actually the country’s chief cash export. The long time colonial occupation of Timor-Leste is largely responsible for coffee’s inconsistent rise and decline in the nation. Today however, its production is stronger (and tastier) than ever. Although Timor-Leste’s coffee exports make up less than 1% of the world’s coffee, it still accounts for about 80% of the nation’s overall exports.

Discovered in the 16th century by colonial explorers, from the 1860s the island was a Portuguese colony until 1975, after which it was occupied by Indonesia. The 1980s and 1990s saw Timor-Leste wage a bloody war with Indonesia to regain their independence. Following the war, international organizations helped the small country get its coffee industry back up and running.

One of Timor-Leste’s greatest contributions to the world of coffee is the Hybrido de Timor, a cross between Arabica and Robusta that has many of the favorable flavors of Arabica with the coffee rust-resistance of Robusta. This hybrid was crossed with Caturra, an Arabica varietal, to create Catimor coffee, which also is resilient varietal.

Growing coffee in this region can be difficult—with an arid climate marked by a short rainy season, the nutrients in the soil can be low. However, the conditions can still be ideal to work with, in that Timor-Leste has high-altitude regions with plentiful shade trees, where much Arabica coffee grows. The coffee here isn’t grown in large plantations but instead in the shade of massive “Mother trees”. Their umbrella-like canopies protect the coffee beans from the sun as much as from the rain, allowing longer maturation on the branch that allows the development of the sweeter compounds.

Coffees in the central highlands are grown largely without interference and without any chemicals, and most are certified Organic.

The village of Letefoho, where our coffee is from is a short day trip from the capital, Dili. Letefoho offers perfect views of East Timor’s highest peak, Mount Ramelau (aka Tatamailau).

A note about our partners from East Timor

Cafe Brisa Serena is the largest green coffee exporter of specialty coffee from East Timor. In conjunction with Lagaranta Café (the importers), we are grateful for the opportunity to be able to try this delicious coffee.

Cafe Brisa Serena - a Social Enterprise established with a support from NGO Peace-Winds Japan in 2010, aim to improve the quality of life of coffee farmers in Timor-Leste, especially in Letefoho. CBS support high quality coffee production in Letefoho and deliver the coffee to domestic and International market. Cafe Brisa Serena supports Coffee Farming Families to improve their coffee quality and production. We work with a total of 404 Coffee Farmers divided up into 33 groups in the Sub-district of Letefoho, District of Ermera, Timor Leste.

Perfect preparation

A balanced and sweet espresso; tea-like quality for filter coffees as a pour-over or through a filter machine. Excellent in all milk drinks (and especially with a great Oat milk alternative).

You can find a full Brewing Guide in your Dashboard when you become a subscriber to our Coffee Club.