Flores Tuang Manggarai

Manggarai is an area of western Flores and islands off the west coast that has been split into three regencies over the past 70 years. The Manggarai people, descendants of the aboriginal peoples of Flores, have settlements covering almost the entire western third of Flores. Tropical farming is a large portion of the area’s economy, including rice, legumes, vegetables, tobacco, corn, and coffee. Geographically, Manggarai is mountainous, with foggy valleys in between peaks and terraced rice fields throughout. The highest peaks of the highlands are lava domes formed by Ranakah volcano, reaching 2,350 masl. Coffee is mostly grown between 1300-1700 masl, concentrated in central to eastern Manggarai.

Flores is a long, narrow island within the eastern half of the Indonesian chain. Its mountainous landscape is made up of active and inactive volcanoes surrounded by plains of rice fields. Portuguese traders and missionaries were the first Europeans to come to Flores in the early 16th century, naming the island Cabo de Flores, or Cape of Flowers. The Portuguese left their imprint on the people, who came to speak Portuguese and practice Catholicism to this day, but many still hold to traditional animist religions in 1854, Portugal ceded its historical claims on Flores, and the island became part of the Dutch East Indies territory. The Dutch dispersed coffee throughout Indonesia, discovering where it could grow commercially. Other islands were far more productive, making Flores one of the newest Indonesian origins to export coffee. The highest peak in Flores is just over 1700 masl, and most coffee production is concentrated in the 1000-1300 masl range by intercropping smallholder producers. Wet-hulled processing, like Sumatra, has been a common practice, but a rising number of cooperatives and producers are applying higher-quality processes to their coffees. Today, Washed Processing is the most common practice by far. Flores’ specialty coffee is predominantly grown above 1400 meters in the Manggarai region, with varieties like Kartika and Yellow Caturra.

Producer: Various Small Holder Farms

Region: Manggarai

Elevation: 1300-1700 MASL

Varieties: Kartika, Timor Hybrid, Caturra

Processing: Washed

Notes: Cocoa with mild fresh coffee cherry flavors. Tart citric acidity and mild sweetness.