Tuang
Stewed Berries, Tamarind, Floral
To give everyone the opportunity to try our exclusive coffees, we send this coffee up to 2 weeks after roast date.
Producer
Andre Hamboer,Tuang Coffee
Location
Ruteng, Manggarai region,Flores Island, Indonesia
Process
Palm Juice CultureAnaerobic Natural
Variety
Yellow CaturraTypica & Kartika
Elevation
1500 MASLBrew Advice
V60
Coffee In: 17g
Water In: 255g
Time: 2.30-3.00 minutes
About this Coffee
It all started in 2014, from a decision by Andre Tuang to leave his job in Jakarta and head to Flores to work with farmers in Flores Manggarai. Mbohang is the name of the village, where the coffee farm is. The name 'mbohang' comes from "mbo", meaning valley and "hang" meaning to eat or to rest. The area is shaded and is a good location to rest from the long walk. Mbohang is in a valley of the central area in the Manggarai Region. In this region the weather is foggy and rainy in the afternoons. The local people have been growing coffee trees since the 1980s in the forest area of Mbohang.
The farm has 42 permanent employees and an extra 98 during the harvest months of April-August. The farm is 600 hectares in size, 1500 masl and grows yellow caturra, typica and kartika. Coffee grows here in very healthy conditions. Trees have plentiful leaves and are well spaced from one another.
Pre-financing is available to farmers every season. This starts around November to January to support farmers during the holiday season as well as supporting tuition fees for their children. With the cherry price, the group offers one transparent price for every farmer and a fee rate for farmers groups leaders who assist in procurement and quality collect.
Social and Environmental projects associated with this group and their coffee production are funding the electricity infrastructure in Mbohang area, scholarships for employees and farmers children to pursue higher education, loans with zero interest rate for farmers and employees
In terms of future investment, the group is focussing on development projects for machines and automation, community development, water management system, more local empowerment, and waste management.
Local ferments
Cherries are picked by farmers in the Mbohang Village, then sent for processing in Ruteng where the cherries get sorted. A starter culture is added before the cherries are placed inside tanks for anaerobic fermentation for around 240 to 360 hours. The ambient temperature will be between 15 - 22 degrees in this period.
This starter culture is a fermented palm juice created by a combination of local natural yeast, fungi and microbes which the local Manggarai people call “mince” for the palm juice, which means sweet. They take the palm juice from the forest then ferment it until it reaches 4.2 pH level. Then the liquid is sprayed onto the coffee cherry before we put it in the tank for anaerobic fermentation.
The pH level of the liquid from the cherry is measured every morning while the coffee is still inside the tanks and the final pH lies between 3.8 - 4.0.
Fermented cherries then go to the drying beds for around 7-8 weeks until the green bean moisture drops to 10%. The dried pods are then stored in sealed plastic bags and rested for around 3 months. Finally, the pods are hulled and the green beans sorted, packed and sent for export.
This intricate process of using local available co-fermenting resources gives this coffee a unique profile, with dark sweet notes of tamarind, a coconut water minerality, a rosemary herbiness and an underlying floral note.
