Timor-Leste Samoro - Filter

Timor-Leste Samoro - Filter

This is the last of  our three beautiful coffees we have this year from Timor-Leste. It has been great to work with Kar-Yee and Stuart again this year in bringing the taste of Timor-Leste to Lucid.

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• Producers + Mill:

2025 was the fourth consecutive year that Karst has worked with the small community of Samoro, located in the south-eastern part of Letefoho, under the watchful eye of Timor-Leste’s most sacred mountain, Mount Ramelau. Led by Orlando Soares, this tight-knit group of 11 farmers proudly process their fully-washed coffee in their individual households using the same traditional methods that their ancestors would have done generations before them.

The Samoro group is a great example of how high-quality, speciality coffee can significantly increase household income and during the last 4-years, we are delighted at how this partnership has developed. As the quality and reputation of this delicious fully-washed coffee has increased, so has our purchase price and as farmers have become more confident with their processing so too have the volumes increased that we are buying. To put this into perspective, in 2022, Karst purchased 1,678 kilos of parchment from the Samoro members at a price of $3.00 per kilo with a total value of $5,035. In comparison, in 2025, Karst purchased a total of 4,956 kilos of parchment at a price of $4.00 per kilo which meant a total of $19,825 was paid directly into the community. It goes without saying that this increase in volume would not have been possible without the trust and confidence of our partner roasters in the UK, many of whom pre-ordered their coffee prior to the harvest, so a huge thank you to you especially!

2025 was a bountiful harvest for the farmers of Letefoho, including the members of Samoro. This was most certainly down to the favourable weather conditions that Mother Nature provided however, credit also needs to be given to those handful of farmers who were brave enough to participate in the government coffee tree rehabilitation and maintenance programme which launched in 2022. 4-years on and this government initiative has yielded results so hopefully this will encourage more members of the community to stump and regenerate to ensure that healthy yields such as 2025 are a regular occurrence and not just an anomaly. The continued encouragement for members to gradually commence rehabilitation of their coffee forests will be a key priority for Karst in 2026.

 

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• Varieties:

Timor Hybrid (Hibido de Timor)

HDT, which stands for Hibido de Timor, is also known as “Tim Tim”. Tim Tim in Indonesian stands for Timor Timur (East Timor in English), which used to be the 27th province of Indonesia before it declared its independence as Timor Leste.

HDT is a cross between Arabica and Robusta. It was first found in a plantation of cultivar Typica in Timor Island in 1917. It was then first collected in East Timor in 1978 and was planted in Aceh in 1979.

The variety is widely cultivated around the world today mainly for its good resistance towards leaf rust and has found extensive use as a gene source in different breeding projects with the purpose of breeding in a higher resistance towards leaf rust and other diseases. Some varieties emerging include: Catimor, Sarchimor in Brazil, Ruiru 11 in Kenya, Colombia in Colombia and Costa Rica 95 in Costa Rica. (Info source: Mercanta)

Typica

Typica (also Tipica) forms the genetic backbone of much of specialty coffee today. The first coffee plantations grown in America and Asia were of the Typica variety and many of the most widely cultivated C. arabica crops today are descended directly from the plant.

In general, Typica is very similar in appearance to the Bourbon plant (of which it is a very close relative) although it has fewer secondary branches and the leaves are normally smaller than those of Bourbon. It is usually identifiable by its bronze leaf tips. The plants are tall (3.5 – 4m) and the berries have an elongated, oval shape.

Even though Typica has a relatively low yield it is known to produce coffee with high cup quality. It is, however, very susceptible to diseases and is becoming increasingly less common for this reason. (Info source: Mercanta)

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• Process:

Each farmer will begin by selectively handpicking only the ripest red cherries from their plantations which is labour intensive work and requires multiple harvests throughout the season to allow those cherries that need it, a little more time to mature.

Once harvested, each farmer will then hand sort and sieve their cherries to remove any defects or overly small cherries. The cherries are then floated in a tank to further remove any defects with low density beans floating to the surface and removed due to either being under ripe or insect damaged. From here, they are then pulped (by a traditional hand pulping machine at individual households) to remove the skin of the cherry and the flesh of the fruit, leaving the coffee seed covered in mucilage which is again floated for a second time to remove any ‘bad’ beans that will float to the surface.

The mucilage covered seeds are now ready for fermentation and a ‘baldi’ is used (essentially a large bucket with a lid) to ferment the coffee. It is incredibly important that clean and fresh water is used in this process and this usually comes directly from nearby mountain sources which are plentiful in Letefoho. 20 kilos of coffee is fermented at a time, with the coffee left completely immersed in water (anaerobic fermentation) for between 40 – 44 hours whilst the natural sugars in the mucilage are broken down which contributes to the unique flavour development of our coffees.

Traditionally farmers will know that the fermentation process is complete when the coffee feels scratchy, similar to when pebbles are rubbed together. In addition to traditional methods, we also use Ph meters to confirm when fermentation is complete and the sweet spot for our coffee is between Ph 4.0 – 4.2. However, we have learnt over the years that a farmers’ intuition and experience is as good a tool, if not better, than a Ph meter. Once fermentation is complete, the coffee is then washed. This is an intense process which can require up to 8-10 washes in order to ensure that the parchment is ‘fully-washed’ and is crucial in order to achieve the clean cup profile expected and associated with our coffees.

(Some people may not be aware that the waste water produced from this process is highly acidic and can cause great damage to localised flora and fauna if not managed appropriately. With this in mind, the resulting waste water is collected in small channels filled with rocks that filter the water safely back into the ground.)

After the washing process is complete, the parchment is laid out on raised African beds to dry thoroughly under the warm Timorese sunshine. During this time, the parchment is continually turned to ensure even drying and further sorting is carried out to remove any further defects. The drying will normally take between 7-10 days and is regularly checked for moisture by our team until reaching between 10-11%. Karst will make weekly visits to each farmer in person to carry out checks to ensure consistency and continuity across all groups and every individual lot (bag) is checked to ensure that the coffee has been dried to the required level.

At this point, parchment is collected from every individual household and payment made directly at farmgate (2023 $3:25 per kg). From here, the parchment is transported to our storage facility where it is rested for a period of 4-6 weeks. QC continues with extensive cupping of all coffees and both moisture content and water activity (aW) are closely monitored with a goal to reach an equilibrium of approximately aW 0.55 to ensure the best possible longevity and freshness of the green coffee.

After the coffee has rested, the parchment is transported to our dry hulling facility in Timor-Leste’s capital city Dili. The dry hulling process essentially removes the layer of paper-like parchment to reveal the green bean. In addition to this, the dry hulling process will also remove any further defect beans and grade the coffee by screen size (15/16/17). Finally, a team of 60 staff will meticulously hand sort the beans to further remove any defects and ensure that the resulting coffee ready for export is of the highest quality (dry processing was completed at the end of September 2023 and exported at the beginning of October and landed into the UK in the middle of November).

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• Region: Letefoho, East Timor
• Producers: Samoro Cooperative
• Importer: Karst Organics
• Price (green ex Shipping): £8.75 p kg

• Variety: Typica, Timor Hybrid
• Process: Washed
• Altitude: 1500-1600masl
• Amount Bought: 60kg

• Tasting: Juicy, Fruity, High Sweetness, High Acidity
• Flavours like: Baked Apple, Pear, Melon