Green Coffee Offerings : Indonesia : Sulawesi


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Upcoming Crop Comments

Crop reports from Sulawesi are that the crop is down 70% due to weather. Both the quality and the prices were not attractive this past season. We are looking at some new options from Sulawesi, but nothing coming in the short term.


About Sulawesi Coffee

 
Map of Indonesia
 
Sweet Maria's Coffee
Sorting Toraja coffee cherry

Sulawesi coffees are low-acid with great body and that deep, brooding cup profile akin to Sumatra. The coffee is sometimes known as Celebes, which was the Dutch colonial name for the island. Indonesians are available as semi-washed (or wet-hulled) coffees and less frequently as washed coffees. While a fully washed coffee may appear to have less defects, it may not satisfy the expected flavor profile of this coffee origin. People look to Sulawesi and Sumatra for heavy body, low acidity, intense foresty or earthy flavors, chocolate roast notes. Those flavors are largely the result of how the coffee is processed after the coffee cherry is harvested, and more specifically, these types of flavors come from the wet-hull method, called Giling Basah in Indonesia. There are risks with this type of process. The green coffee is dried further on the patio or (in the worst cases) on the dirt! And if a sudden rain comes along and the coffee is not quickly gathered, it can develop musty off notes. Even without added moisture, the fruity mucilage layer can ferment into a very undesirable off cup flavor. Giling Basah method requires as much care as any other type of processing to acheive the best results, and a rigorous cupping regimen can distinguish between positive fruited or earth notes, and rank dirty or fermented defects.

A general roast comment: There is a tendency to over-roast Sulawesi coffees. The reason is that they don't show as much roast color, and have a mottled appearance up until 2nd crack and even a bit into it. Don't let this make you think you have to roast them dark (although they can be nice this way too). Great Indonesians will be wonderful roasted just to the verge of 2nd crack but NOT into it at all. So ignore the weird beans you see green, and ignore the mottled appearance of lighter roasts, and focus on the what you get in the cup!

For many more images of Sulawesi, see the travelog from Toms visits to Tana Toraja.


Wet-hulled coffee still in parchment is traded at the local market in Buntu, Tana Toraja. The coffee is then taken to a mill, stripped of the parchement layer, and sun-dried.

Better coffees are hand sorted; this is the mill where our Grade One Toraja, Sapan Minanga and Mount Alla coffees come from.

Traditional Tongkonan house for grain storage and to store your deceased relatives as well (well, until the proper burial in a cave).
 

Our Unroasted Sulawesi Coffee Offerings:

(You will need to read the reference page to interpret terms and numbers used below) Check out the Sweet Maria's Coffee Home Roasting Forum for more conversation about home roasting this and other coffees.


We are currently out of stock. The review below is provided for your reference.

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Sulawesi Toraja Sapan-Minanga

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Toraja coffees can come from anywhere in the Tana Toraja highlands, and sometimes they even come from outside the area and are blended with true Toraja coffees. In the very north of Toraja are the highest growing areas, like Pulu Pulu, and these coffees are brought by the farmers down to the local markets of Sapan and Minanga to sell to collectors for the larger mills. So Sapan and Minanga represent the best collection points for the highest grown Toraja lots, and what we have here is a coffee exclusively from those two local markets. A lot of the cup quality of Sulawesi coffees is the result of the post-harvest process, the wet-hull method, called "Giling Basah". The dark, chaff-free appearance of the green is evidence, as well as low acidity, heavy body, and some of the muted, deep fruit notes. But with this lot, it is clear that starting with higher altitude coffee from these areas in the extreme north of Toraja is a factor in the final cup. In particular, the bean seems to have more density, resulting in sweet roast flavors well into 2nd crack. The dry fragrance isn't overwhelming, but has a lot of rustic sweetness, and pungent spice in the darker roasts. The wet aroma fleshes out these qualities: dried plum and raisin pudding, peppery spice in the FC+ roast. The darker roast levels are where this coffee really hits it's stride: intense, thick oily body, dark brutish cup flavors. It's also a astoundingly clean cup, not musty, without dirty earth notes, but by no means a wimpy cup either! The coffee remains darkly sweet, with caramelized brown sugar, into 2nd crack, and has no ashy roast flavors (well, not until you really burn it). The aftertaste has a pleasant, warm woody tone, with lingering caramelized sugar sweetness, and traces of fruit: berry, raisin bread, black currant. It's one of the best Indonesian coffees I have cupped at this FC+ roast level, with an intriguing relation between bittering roast notes and lingering sweetness.





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Rocky pediment in Sulawesi, Tana Toraja, from my trip in late 2008.
Country: Sulawesi
Grade: One
Region: Island of Sulawesi, Tana Toraja, Sapan and Minanga areas
Mark: NCBA-CBI regional lot
Processing:
Arrival Date: December 2008 Arrival
Appearance: .6 d/300gr, 17-18 screen
Varietal:
Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium-Bold Intensity / Thick, oily body, spice, rustic sweetness
Roast: Full City to Full City+. Lighter roasts taste a bit baked. FC+ is intense and complex.
Compare to: Wet-hulled Indonesia coffees such as North Sumatras and Aceh coffees. Full body, low acid, intense.
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We are currently out of stock. The review above is provided for your reference.


Archived Reviews

To view reviews for out of stock coffees, visit our Sulawesi Coffee Archives.


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