Region:  Ducurai sub-district, Letefoho Administrative Post, Ermera Municipality, Timor-Leste
Producer: Eratoi Village
Farm: 15 Smallholder families in Eratoi organized around Café Brisa Serena
Varietal: Timor Hybrid & Typica
Process: Fully washed after pulping and fermenting, dried on raised beds, greenhouse conditioned

100% Arabica

Elegant and clean, with distinct rose and violet floral overtones which are matched in kind by gentle stone fruit flavors like apricot and nectarine—a very nice example of some of the best coffee produced on this tiny island nation.

The island of Timor rests just a couple hundred miles northwest of Australia, and is split between the sovereignty of the nation of Indonesia on the west and, since 2002, the independent Timor-Leste on the east. Modern Timor-Leste was until very recently the world’s most coffee dependent nation. Green coffee export accounted for nearly 70% of the nation’s GDP as recently as 2006. However, after cancelling a controversial agreement with Australia, Timor-Leste now retains a significantly higher proportion of its petroleum revenue, making that the country’s leading export product. East Timor is now the world’s most oil-dependent nation.

This coffee comes to us from Café Brisa Serena, a social enterprise established by Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) in 2003. PWJ came to Timor in 1999 in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe, generations in the making. After Portuguese and Japanese occupation, the nation of Indonesia claimed the island from 1975 onwards, stoking guerrilla warfare and a major refugee crisis. By 1999, international support for Timor-Leste’s independence won out, and aid came flowing to the island’s beleaguered residents.

Café Brisa Serena now works with over 400 farming households, primarily in and around Letefoho, the administrative outpost in the municipal district of Ermera, near the center of the island. They provide agronomic support and quality service, a greenhouse for parchment conditioning, access to international markets, and even a roastery to improve the local coffee consumption culture as well.

This microlot is sourced from a community of 15 smallholder farmers in the Eratoi village, each of whom grow coffee on less than 1 hectare of land. Their names are Abel de Oliveira Pinto, Abrao de Deus, Eduardo L. Pereira, Joao da Costa Soares, David Soares, Domingos de Deus II, Miguel Lemos, Adolfo de Deus, Jose Mariano de Jesus, Agusto de Deus, Joao Felisberto de Deus, Manuel de Deus, Agostinho de Deus, Orlando de Deus, and Miguel da Graca.

Eratoi Village

South Slope Coffee is a specialty coffee micro roaster located in Asheville, NC.

South Slope Coffee

Juan Encalada has been around coffee his entire life, as his parents produced coffee as well. At the farm, the entire business is a family effort. He has been a member of Valle Inca for 4 years. He is actually a fairly young producer, born in 1985.

Nestled in the Yanatile Valley in the Department of Cusco in the south of Peru, Valle Inca functions as a producer group, where Prudencio Vargas Saenz, who created and runs the group, buys parchment from farmers, reinvesting premiums in the community’s infrastructure to help them continue to improve quality. Prudencio, who lives in nearby Calca and brings the benefits of his former experience as an agricultural loan officer, used to operate outside the aegis of a collective, but after years of running Valle Inca informally, he formalized the organization this year in order to gain organic certification, Fair Trade certification, and the ability to export on his own. 

Member-wise, Valle Inca is growing fast, with 101 farmers currently in the fold. It’s no surprise that more and more farmers want to work with Valle Inca; in the community, Prudencio is known for his honesty, trustworthiness, dedication, and drive to invest and reinvest in his community, genuinely engaging their goals and concerns. He also pays higher prices than farmers had access to prior to the founding of Valle Inca, which has helped to improve quality as well as overall community health over time. 

Leaders like Prude

Juan Encalada Sumalave

Luis Ordoñez is a well-seasoned farmer from Amatenango de la Frontera, Chiapas located literally right on the border of Guatemala. His production is quite healthy and thus has bandwidth to really focus on quality. This lot is so well processed that there are barely any defect notable. A true gem.

Among his few farms, Osito, alongside their partners on the ground, Cafeología, have selected a few lots from La Piedra. La Piedra is one of Sr. Ordoñez’s higher altitude farms (1400-1600 masl).

Like many Mexican farmers, he is cultivating old-stock Typica and Bourbon in addition to a few other varieties. This is a truly special coffee from a special place.

The state of Chiapas shares many characteristics with Guatemalan coffee growing conditions. The climate, higher altitude mountains and volcanic soil are the perfect combination for high quality coffee.  It is one of the most prolific coffee growing regions in Mexico. Farmers whom focus on good picking practices, meticulous sorting and careful processing have all the potential to have amazing coffees, this coffee from Mr. Ordoñez is a perfect example.

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Eratoi Village