Sulawesi Toraja
Sulawesi Toraja Handoko Full Washed
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. We have 2 very different profiles for you. A developed filter roast and a not-so-developed espresso roast.
Top Trumps
Owners: Handoko Family
Region: Village of Makale Selatan
Farm size: 0.65 Hectare
Varietals: S-795
Process: Fully washed
Roast: We have 2 very different profiles for you. A developed filter roast and a not-so-developed espresso roast. Yes, two different ones!
Cup Potential: Filter
|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.
In espresso:
Brew Temperature: 93C Feel free to up this if you want more on the chocolate scale and less of the acidity in espresso.
Espresso: 17g of coffee to 45/50g of espresso over 30 (ish) seconds. I have found this not the most forgiving coffee when extracted much over 30 secs. It can get quite dry and astringent.
We had to hold on to that clean acidity. That is the headline of this story in the cup. Citrus, salty cocoa, savoury and dry citrus.
100-120g Milk-based drink: 17g of coffee into 34-36g in 27-30 seconds. Dark chocolate and salted caramel. If you want more of either element increase milk or decrease the extraction time.
150-160g Milk Based-drink: 17g of coffee into 34-36g in 27-30 seconds. Milk chocolate, lactic sugars.
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.
