Sulawesi Toraja Filter
Sulawesi Toraja Handoko Full Washed Filter Roast
Let me set the scene here. it is the early 2000’s and most Indonesian coffees to see the light of day in Europe were dark roasts, earthy, muddy cups of coffee with an aggressive rubbery after-taste comparable to a lorry tyre. This was why we didn’t buy into old-school Sulawesi. There is more to the changes here than just processing, it takes a catalyst to stimulate change sometimes.
Troy Kiper, is a former American Marine who started playing around with coffee, when on a tour in Afghanistan in 2008. His background story is here. Troy has done the very opposite of big business and started to work with remote plantations and individuals. To back up the final product he has built a mill there so that they have more control over the coffee they receive. This is a great story and although the coffee has taken 8 months to reach us, it is still so much cleaner than any other Sulawesi I have tasted.
Normally this wouldn’t be on my take-home-coffee list. But we are so happy with this profile that it made it home and really enjoyed it.
Top Trumps
Owners: Handoko Family
Region: Village of Makale Selatan
Farm size: 0.65 Hectare
Varietals: S-795
Process: Fully washed
Roast: Cool drop, higher side of a medium filter.
Cup Potential:
|Aromatics: Rich and sweet| Body: Silky| Acidity Sweet apple and Graprefruit|
Six roasts later, we have a great profile recipe for this coffee. Super, sweet and apple-like on the opening, followed by cocoa, dark chocolate, salted caramel with a grapefruity linger on the finish.
60-70g a litre, depending on your brew method. 60g per litre has worked great in batch for us and 65g in a cafetiere.
Farm Stuff
Novrianti Mangera is from the Toraja growing region on the island of Sulawesi and her husband Handoko Eko Trisnanto, is the former processing manager at Bright Java. Handoko wanted to help his wife’s family (who are smallholder coffee farmers). The team at Bright Java sent Handoko and Novriati to Toraja to help with the harvest and processing.
Part of this lot has been reserved for the Indonesian Cup of Excellence too.
