One thing I absolutely love about the Speciality Coffee industry is the collaborative nature of it. It's such a strong force throughout coffee that serves to connect passionate people. Coffee really does bring people together all through the supply chain, all the way to the final cup.
a passion for sharing our discovery and enjoyment of all the nuanced flavours that exist in the humble coffee bean
Connecting over Coffee
I first met Chris from Bells Beans at a local market where we chatted for a good while, in between him serving customers. It was clear immediately that we both shared a similar approach to our coffee. I can describe it simply as a passion for sharing our discovery and enjoyment of all the nuanced flavours that exist in the humble coffee bean.
Since we met we have continued talking, usually about the deep issues facing the industry and the challenges of running our small roasteries. We're always buying more coffee from importers, even if we already have more than enough in stock, something of a running joke!
Inevitably we both use some of the same importers sometimes. This year KOTA worked with Karst Organics, who offer some exceptional coffee from Timor Leste.
Chris has worked with Karst for over four years already, so Stuart and Kar Yee, the founders of Karst arranged a cupping which Chris kindly hosted for us all.
Timor Leste typically offer only washed coffees, so the natural process, whilst established elsewhere, is something of an experiment this year.
It was at this cupping where we first floated the idea of a collaboration over a particularly special coffee...
The Coffee
We're excited to offer Eratoi, a naturally processed coffee from Timor Leste.
Timor Leste typically offer only washed coffees, so the natural process, whilst established elsewhere, is something of an experiment this year.
Eratoi is centrally located in the sub-district of Letefoho, where the coffee and farmers are widely dispersed throughout a large area of land under the watchful eye of Timor-Leste’s most sacred mountain - Mount Ramelau. At an altitude of 1800masl, the Eratoi member’s coffee forests are all ideally located amongst the cooling shade trees, where the cherries are provided with a good balance of sun and shade, giving them the time needed to grow and mature slowly. With higher altitude comes marginally cooler temperatures, meaning that the cherries require a little more time to ripen.
Whilst all processing methods are labour intensive and time consuming, with continued changes in climate, natural processed coffee in particular needs much longer drying times in order to reach the right moisture level. During the 2024 harvest, this natural lot took an average of 25 days of continuous drying, in comparison to around 10 days for fully washed coffees processed from the same group.
The resulting coffee does not disappoint, offering a deliciously juicy cup with red berry and hard candy notes.
The Process
So how did we collaborate to bring you this coffee?
The goal was simple, to come up with a shared expression of the coffee, dialing in a roasting profile that was crafted by both of us.
We started with three distinct roasts of the coffee using small 100g samples, using a Nucleus Link sample roaster; Filter, Omni and Espresso roast profiles.
Then we cupped the resulting coffee, making notes about what we liked and disliked.
Using the feedback we gathered from this step we designed a production roast plan together which we then tested against the sample roasts. This process allowed us to test the coffee using many different roast styles and ultimately pick our favourite expression of the available flavours.
So we ended up with a roast profile that we both reproduce on our different production roasters, so we are both able to offer the same coffee to our customers.
I think this is awesome, and I'm really proud to be collaborating in this way with another small business and sharing our passion with a wider group.
Eratoi Natural is available now, and it's really lovely, both in flavour and backstory.
