Flores, Indonesia – Manggarai Region

Fermented in-cherry/Washed Process ∙Medium Roast

Cocoa with mild fresh coffee cherry flavors. Tart citric acidity and mild sweetness. 

Grown at 1300-1700 Meters Above Sea Level (MASL)

Our Origin Select coffee this month comes from Flores, located in the Eastern Half of the Indonesian Chain. Its mountainous landscape is made up of active and inactive volcanoes surrounded by plains of rice fields. The highest peak in Flores is just over 1700 meters above sea level (masl), and most coffee production is within the 1000-1300 masl range in the Manggarai region by intercropping smallholder producers.

These producers grow varieties like Kartika and Yellow Caturra and use a washed process for their coffees. Wet-hulled processing, like Sumatra, has been a common practice, but a rising number of cooperatives and producers are applying higher-quality processes to their coffees. Today, washed processing is the most common practice by far.

Portuguese traders and missionaries were the first Europeans to come to Flores in the early 16th century, but it was the Dutch who dispersed coffee throughout Indonesia, discovering where it could grow commercially. Flores has always produced less coffee than other islands within the Indonesian chain, sending most of its harvest to Java or Sumatra for export throughout the 1900s and earlier. As the other islands were far more productive, Flores is one of the newest Indonesian origins to export coffee. The result is a product that’s lesser known to the specialty consumer than it probably should be.

As new markets, easier communication, and shared knowledge have emerged, producers, cooperatives, and mills of lesser-known origins have made it their mission to bring their country’s coffees to the specialty market. Perkolator is excited to feature a coffee from this origin for the very first time!