Situated in South East Asia with Australia to the South, Timor-Leste holds the unenviable accolade of being one of the few countries in the world to have been both colonised and annexed; colonised by Portugal from 1600s to 1975 and annexed by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. Having finally gained independence in 2002, Timor-Leste is the world’s second youngest nation state and still finding its feet in the geo-political world of the 21st century.

Coffee was introduced to the island by the Portuguese and went on to become the country’s leading export by the 1900s, however the industry suffered greatly during the years of Indonesian annexation when the sector was largely ignored.

Fast forward to the present day and you will see that the coffee farmers of Timor-Leste are working hard to collectively carve out a place for Timorese coffee in the global speciality coffee market.

Timorese coffee is truly wild and organically grown underneath the imposing shade trees that dominate the landscape. With time old traditions in processing coffee, passed on from generation to generation, coffee is helping to build up more opportunities for Timorese people to create a consistent and sustainable income from which to support and provide for their families and the local community.

Although this is our first year to offer an individual coffee from Samoro, our import partners Karst Organics have been working closely with Orlando (lead farmer of Samoro) and the other members of the group for 3 years. Having previously collaborated as part of the Cristo Liurai group, their observations from continuous cuppings throughout this year’s harvest led us to believe that there was a sufficient difference in cup profile to warrant an opportunity to showcase their coffee separately. This thinking was reinforced by the fact that due to Samoro’s location being more easterly (when comparing with Cristo Liurai’s location), this community experiences warmer ambient temperatures which in turn results in warmer water during processing. This allowed for more concentrated fermentation which we believe has produced a coffee featuring slightly bolder flavour notes.

Samoro is truly a sacred part of Letefoho, with a long standing history in coffee farming and strong ties that date back to their Animist cultural traditions. As with all coffee farmers in Timor-Leste, Orlando and the other members of the Samoro group grow their coffee underneath the shade of the Ai Kakeu (Casurina) and Ai Samtuku (Albizia) trees. You will often find them inside their coffee plantations not only tending to and harvesting their coffee, but also other crops as part of their main food source.

NB. This year’s harvest in Timor-Leste was particularly challenging due to the extended wet season, suggesting that climate change may need to be considered more carefully by everyone working within the coffee sector. Whilst we have no evidence to prove that the differences in temperature between Samoro and Cristo Liurai are a direct result due to climate change, this is the first time that we have noticed this difference.

Roast

Medium