Indonesia Tuang Lot 292

This is one of those coffees that really show how far Indonesia has come as a coffee producing country. We can’t believe how beautiful she is.

Tuang Coffee comes from Ruteng, the Manggarai region, Flores Island, and Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. It started in 2014, from a decision by Andre Tuang to leave his job in Jakarta and head to head to Flores to work with farmers in Flores Manggarai.

Before this, it was rare to find coffee in that area that had was not mixed with coffee from other regions like Sumatra, Java, or Toraja. Coffee was exported as commodity grade while farmers were under appreciated. They suffered from limited market access and unfair payment systems and at the time, few people cared about specialty coffee processing.

Cherries are picked by farmers in the Mbohang Village, then sent for processing in Ruteng. They are sorted for quality and a starter culture is added before the cherries are placed inside tanks for anaerobic fermentation for around 240 to 360 hours. The ambient temperature will be between 15 - 22 degrees in this period.

The Starter Culture is fermented palm juice created by a combination of local natural yeast, fungi and microbes which the Local Manggarai people call “mince” for the palm juice, which means sweet. They take the palm juice from the forest then ferment it until it reaches 4.2 pH level. Then the liquid is sprayed to the coffee cherry before we put in the tank for anaerobic fermentation. The pH level of the liquid from the cherry is measured every morning while the coffee is still inside the tanks and the final pH of between 3.8 - 4.0. Fermented cherries then go to the drying beds for around 7-8 weeks until the green bean moisture drops to 10%. The dried pods are then stored in sealed plastic bags and rested for around 3 months. Finally, the pods are hulled and the green beans sorted, packed and sent for export.

Now for the sensory experience. The coffee, upon the first sip, lends the complex yet juicy flavour that reminds us of a good aged Tawny Port. This then leads to the ripe notes of mulled cherry and finishes with the lingering and refined sweetness of dark chocolate. Beautiful.