With the beginning of the coffee harvest here in Timor-Leste, things are well on their way with our farmers, picking and processing only the ripest of red cherries to enable us to produce the delicious coffee that we have all grown to love.

Working direct with a small cooperative farmer group, processing is centralised at our central processing facility based at the farm of Francisco de Deus. By centralising all processing here, we will be able to ensure that the level of quality and consistency can be maintained across the full crop of coffee from all the members of the group.

Processing coffee is no easy feat, as I have learned first hand from spending time in Letefoho with our farmers, working hard to pick, sort and process the coffee. Processing has to be done on the same day as the cherries were picked to ensure that only the ripest cherries are processed and to avoid any over fermentation from the cherries being stored for extended periods of time.

We are excited to cup the first samples off the drying racks for the new 2019 harvest, especially as we have trialled some natural and honey processed coffees in addition to the widely used fully washed method.