Sulawesi Toraja Sapan-Minanga
One of the highest grown coffees in Indonesia, Sapan-Minanga is unusually crisp, while still possessing the luxuriously rich body you expect from a Sulawesi coffee. It's like Sumatra's more refined and sophisticated friend!
Formerly known as Celebes, the island of Sulawesi is home to some of the highest (if not the highest) grown coffee in Indonesia. Nearly all of the coffee from this island comes from the southern region of Toraja which is bisected by the Sesean Mountains. Historically, coffee grown on the east side of the mountains ends up in the market town of Minanga, while coffee grown on the west side usually ends up in Sapan. Recently, however, much of the Sulawesi coffee we've been getting is chosen from the best crops from both markets, indicated with the name "Sapan-Minanga." In any case, this extremely high grown coffee (up to 2,000 masl) results in some of the cleanest and smoothest coffee you'll find in Indonesia. So if you like all the syrupy body and low acidity of Indonesian coffee but aren't a big fan of all the complex earthiness, Sulawesi coffee is for you! This very dense coffee also stands up to dark roasting quite well and even into Vienna roasts, you can still taste much of the origin character.
This year's crop does not disappoint! It retains the low acidity you expect from Indonesian coffee while having just the slightest sense of crisp front end when compared to its neighbors. This is representative of it's higher grown character. It's also fairly clean and a bit less complex than Sumatra or Java which still having that baker's chocolate bitter-sweetness. The syrupy texture is accompanied by a huge body and you'll also note pleasant woody flavors including cedar and the classic black licorice candy. This coffee remains the cleanest Indonesian coffee and is great for folks who tend to be chased off by Sumatra's supremely complex earthiness.
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: December 8th, 2023. US Arrival: Fall 2023
Acidity & Brightness: Fairly muted acidity, surprisingly bright for an Indonesian coffee
Balance & Finish: Slightly complex with a lingering, sweet woody finish
Body & Texture: Bold, rich body and syrupy texture
Flavors: Baker's chocolate, butterscotch, cedar and vanilla
Grade: Grade 1, grown at 1400-2000 masl
Processing: Wet-hulled (Giling Basah), hand picked & sun dried
Grower: Producers organized around the Cooperative of Toraja Coffee Growers
Region: Buntu Minanga and Sapan, Buntu Pepasan, Toraja Utara Regency, South Sulawesi
Varieties: Typica, Catimor, S-795
Recommended Roast Range: Full City to Vienna (medium to dark)
Start with a Full City Plus (Medium Dark), or just into the second crack. This coffee roasts a touch unevenly, and will appear light for it's degree of roast, gaining oil as it rests. Try this, and then if you prefer, feel free to carry it to a Vienna roast (Dark) for more baker's chocolate and spice. If you prefer a bit more acidity and less roasty flavor, pull your roast at Full Medium (between 1st and 2nd crack) for more butterscotch and vanilla.
Royal Coffee NY - “The Torajan tribe, living in the central mountain region of the South Sulawesi province, continue to maintain a traditional village lifestyle that includes houses that resemble boats. The growing region has a complex geography that includes humid low-land rice paddies flanked by thousand-foot rock walls capped in perpetual mist. Coffee is grown in this geographic wonderland at elevations that reach 2000 MASL, considered to be some of the highest growing elevations in all of Indonesia. In recent years, producers who cultivate and harvest coffee on farms that average less than 3 acres in size have been organizing and building community micro-mills to improve their processing standards. At these mills, each producer carefully sorts their harvested cherries, depulps, ferments overnight, washes, and lays wet parchment out on patios to shed water. Next the coffee takes a detour from the conventional path of processing in other origins, wherein, the coffee parchment is removed while the coffee still has a high moisture content. This wet-hulling process, called Giling Basah in the Indonesian language, leaves the coffee bean exposed while drying on patios to a moisture percentage acceptable for export and gives the bean its unique bluish color and the hallmark Indonesian profile. Local producer groups have also begun to partner with regional exporters like Indokom to overcoming logistical challenges like rugged roads and lack of infrastructure. Indokom provides logistics and milling facilities, which improves traceability and quality control throughout the post-harvest process, as well as, the ability to swiftly bring the coffee to the international market, ensuring greater producer earnings from direct trade relationships.”
