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Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
Timor-Leste Remagoa
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Timor-Leste Remagoa

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Unique and flavourful community coffee from the Ermera municipality of central-eastern Timor-Leste.

Roast: Full City (4/7) (Medium)

Tasting Notes: Rum, Raisin, Roasted Hazelnut and Caramelised Butter

Altitude: 1850 MASL

Variety: Typica, Timor Hybrid
Processing Method: Fully Washed and African bed/Tarpaulin dried

Story:
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 fourth 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 this sector was largely ignored. Fast forward to the present day, around 1/3 of all Timorese households grow coffee 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.[44][46]

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.[44]

Of the 13 municipalities in East Timor, Ermera is said to produce almost half of the nation's coffee.[45][46] With high elevations, soil made up of silt, sandstone and limestone, and ideal weather conditions, it provides the perfect location for growing coffee.[46] Remagoa is located in the extremely remote eastern highlands of Letefoho, within Ermera, nestled amongst the coffee trees and is only accessible on foot. It is a cooperative of 6 farmers and our most remote offering to date.[44]

This coffee is imported by Karst Organics. Run by Stewart and Kar-Yee, they first began working in East Timor in 2017. With Stewart’s background in education and capacity-building and Kar-Yee's background in business, it provided a perfect foundation for implementing and improving coffee farming and processing techniques, such as selective picking and documenting fermentation/drying practices.[47] They have and continue to work with the farmers at origin by spending 6 months of the year living in East Timor throughout the harvest season. Their work to date has included:

  • Funding the construction of a new centralised processing facility in 2018 for their Rotutu cooperative
  • Supporting the installation of new water pipes to the centralised processing plant for improved water supply. This allows for greater consistency during processing and also provides some houses within the local community with access to a direct water source
  • Collaboration with the Associasaun Café Timor (ACT) to provide training programs around quality coffee processing and coffee cupping to enable farmers to have a better understanding of their product and how different methods affect the final flavour of the coffee
  • Consistent reinvestment into new equipment and the local community to expand their team of locally employed staff and increase the volume of coffee purchased.[48]

Remagoa has worked together with family members from another cooperative since 2021 and as such, are no strangers to processing speciality coffee. When Marito (the lead farmer) approached Karst in the beginning of the 2022 harvest to ask if they would support him and close family members to process their own coffee under the name of their land, Remagoa, they wanted to support them. This required an initial investment in materials and specifically, a new pulping machine, materials for drying racks and fermentation buckets, all of which needed to be transported on foot through the spectacular forests where the coffee grows wildly under the canopy. As with all their groups, Karst regularly visited Remagoa throughout the harvest along with their field manager to provide assistance with processing and to carry out quality control checks where necessary. The parchment was then transported out of the forest along a 2km trek on horseback before being picked up at the nearest dirt track for transportation to Karst’s warehouse.

It is amazing to see the continued development within Timor-Leste and this is showcased by the annual improvement in the quality of beans. This is the first year Remagoa has been available and we feel privileged to be able to offer this impeccable example of Timorese coffee. Roasted medium-light, it emphasises the sweet, smooth chocolatey tones, with a touch of spice and notes of Rum, Raisin, Roasted Hazelnut and Caramelised Butter.

If you would like to learn more about Karst Organics and the work they do at origin, you can do so on their website here.

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A
Amanda

Fabulous coffee with excellent service…..thank you

A
Amanda

Fabulous coffee….as always