Eratoi II, East Timor (Organic)
Location: Eratoi Village, Letefoho
Owner: 15 Farmers
Preparation: Washed - Fermentation 26 hours
Varietals: Hybrid De Timor & Typica
Altitude: 1600 - 1700 masl
In the Cup: to follow
Eratoi village, East Timor
COFFEE IN EAST TIMOR:
Eratoi 2 lot is produced by 15 small holders in Eratoi village in the south west of Asia's newest independent country, East Timor. The farms are located at an altitude of 1600-1700 meters above sea level. The village name of Eratoi comes from the local Mambae language and means "rich in water". As the name indicates, water is plentiful which makes wet-milling less difficult than in other villages.
Eratoi village has 42 coffee growers who are separated into 3 groups, Eratoi 1, Eratoi 2, Eratoi 3. These numbers allow for meticulous quality assurance protocol and are not indicators relating to the quality superiority or otherwise of any given group.
Being led by Senhor Laurentino Soares, Eratoi 2 members pay a great degree of attention to quality. Only fully ripe cherries are hand picked and the harvest finishes just after lunch to allow plenty of time to fully process these cherries on the same day. All the harvests of the day go through a floater selection to eliminate insect damaged cherries followed by a de-pulping (wet processing) with a traditional pulping machine that each farmer possesses. After the cherries are removed, parchments are sorted again with a floater selection and are then fermented for 36 hours. After fermentation, parchments are washed, sun-dried on drying tarpaulins and dry milled after the curing period of a minimum 30 days.
The coffee is then transported to the capital and port town of Dili. All green beans are sorted with the colour sorter and by hand before being packed in Ecotact bags and jute sacks prior to export.
(Information & images provided by Falcon Specialty)