Flores Island - Tuang Coffee, Thermal Fermentation, Indonesia | Anaerobic Natural FSC-8463

Tuang Coffee comes from Ruteng in the Manggarai region, Flores Island, and Nusa Tenggara in Timur, Indonesia. It started in 2014 when Andre Tuang decided to leave his job in Jakarta and head to Flores to work with farmers in Flores Manggarai. Before then it was rare to find coffee in that area that was not mixed with coffee from other regions like Sumatra, Java, or Toraja. Coffee was exported as commodity grade while farmers were under appreciated. They suffered from limited market access and unfair payment systems. Also few people cared about specialty coffee processing.

By 2023, the organisation has more than 2500 members delivering to 17 community leaders within these farmer groups. Our coffees come from 3 main village areas of Nati, Mbohang and Gulang which have around 250 farmers. Farmers are trained every season on when and how to pick their cherries for maximum quality. Tools are provided such as grass cutters, that encourage farmers not to use any herbicides, and pruning scissors and gloves. Financial support is also provided with a pre-harvest deposit or a bonus after the season.

Tuang are also helping to provide in some areas deposits for farmers to help them build their own homes which they will repay with coffee over the following harvests. They grow yellow caturra, typica and kartika traditionally on the farms as well as ginger and clove and the farmers see ginger as 'money in the ground' as they are able to harvest this monthly to sell for cash when needed. Coffee grows here in very healthy conditions. Trees are well spaced from one another.

Farmers use dried grass, leaves, and pulped cherry skins as organic fertilizer. Pruning is carried out only when needed and shade trees are grown around the coffee areas. Cherries are picked by farmers in the Villages and then sent for processing in Ruteng at the Tuang central processing site.