Our newest single origin release is from an unsung region, it’s flippin’ tasty, but that’s not the only awesome thing about this coffee…
It’s not a particularly recognised coffee growing region. I mean, to be honest there’s a lot of us who aren’t even sure where Timor-Leste is, let alone that they grow coffee there. Timor-Leste is a country that borders Indonesia and sits just north of the Australian continent. It’s a country that’s had a difficult time over the years. While a lot of coffee is grown there, most of it is low grade commodity coffee - the kind you find in well known instant coffees that might rhyme with Mes-waffay.
But there IS some much higher quality coffees being grown there too and we’re stoked to have our hands on one. The couple who import this coffee into the UK actually spend six months of the year over in Timor-Leste, working in-country with the farmers and helping them to buy equipment and increase the quality of coffee being grown there. It’s a small import operation, but what makes it so special, is the level of transparency they offer.
Timor transparency
There’s an industry wide problem where hungry ‘middle-men’ often take advantage of cheap coffee prices in country - regardless of whether it’s a fair price locally or not. We’re always looking for the smallest gap between the coffee prices we pay, vs the gate price, which is what the farmer gets. Even still, that gap in the middle is vague and it’s difficult to know how exploitative this gap could be.
With this new Timor-Leste, our importer was able to give us a full breakdown of costs. It included everything from the price they pay for the coffee (arguably the highest in Timor), to processing, packing and shipping. The importers don’t make much at all, but they’re committed to helping raise the bar of coffee in Timor. It was actually an expat, a former student of Bournemouth University that mentioned us to the importers while in a cafe in Timor-Leste. A year later, they reached out to us and we’re stoked to bring this new single origin to you guys.
How does it taste?
This new coffee is from a cooperative called Hatuhei, up in the eastern highlands of Timor-Leste. Jason has experimented with a number of roast profiles on this one, and settled on a light roast, which brings out a mouthwatering cup which has a delicate tea-like quality to it. It’s a super clean, smoothed out coffee, perfect for sipping at the computer working through creative problems, or while eating your eggs-benny on the weekend. We’re digging it through French press and V60 right now, but it’s going to taste insane through any brew method. It’s also a great coffee to make cold-brew with too.
GRAB YOUR HATUHEI, TIMOR-LESTE COFFEE HERE
