Indonesian Coffee Beans | Sulawesi Island | Toraja

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Sulawesi island is also one of the famous islands in Indonesia that produces premium coffee, possessing unique natural conditions and a long history of coffee cultivation. Especially Toraja coffee, with its unique smooth taste characteristics, has gradually been accepted and loved by countries around the world in recent years.

However, because Toraja coffee production is not abundant, it has been defined as a specialty bean since the Dutch colonial era.

Compared to Sumatra island, Toraja farmers have a strong concept of quality and will pick only fully ripe coffee cherries for harvest, which also extends the harvest season.

In Sulawesi, Toraja coffee is also processed using the Giling Basah method, combined with Sulawesi island's rich iron ore deposits and high iron content in the soil, both of which create this unique Toraja coffee flavor.

PS. (Giling: grind; Basah: wet)

In recent years, some traders have gradually started importing Toraja coffee to Taiwan, and Toraja Coffee has gradually gained recognition in the market.

However, knowledge about Toraja is mostly limited to the terms Toraja Kalosi Celebes, which has left some shops using Toraja green beans often confused about the definition of price and quality.

Did you buy Toraja, Kalosi, Toraja Kalosi, or Celebes?

Here's a simple explanation: previously, everyone commonly called it Toraja Kalosi because after Toraja coffee was harvested by farmers, it was sold to local middlemen, who then sent it to coffee processing plants in the so-called Kalosi area. Therefore, Toraja coffee was often linked with Kalosi. In reality, Kalosi is mainly a distribution center for green coffee beans rather than famous for coffee cultivation.

Therefore, it's almost impossible to know from which high-altitude mountain coffee area the commonly purchased Toraja green beans actually come from.

In the Toraja region, except for the 50-hectare scale plantation cooperation between the Forestry Bureau and Toarco Jaya Company that started in 2009, most are small-scale farmers who grow their own coffee and then sell it to middlemen, without developing the so-called large estate model.

In recent years, Toraja coffee's fame has greatly increased, and production is quite scarce, so some green bean purchasers go directly to the Toraja mountain areas to purchase coffee beans. Gradually, Toraja has also begun to have its own reputation.

A young man from Taiwan, after months of data collection and testing in the deep mountains of Toraja, finally decided to start purchasing coffee beans from the Toraja - Sapan mountain area in central Sulawesi.

The coffee forest area in Sapan is at an altitude of 1,300-1,500 meters, which is also the most suitable height for growing high-quality Indonesian Arabica coffee forest environment, with an average annual temperature of approximately 28-22 degrees Celsius.

This place has the best soil quality, with a humus layer over 30 centimeters thick, all of which is black soil. The coffee here can not only grow to large size with sufficient nutrients but also has excellent flavor!

Moreover, unlike the Toraja sold by other traders, we completely control the process from when coffee farmers harvest cherries, cooperating with farmers through a semi-contract approach, requiring the harvest of absolutely ripe coffee cherries.

The general coffee processing process in the Toraja mountain area is quite primitive. After removing the pulp, it is washed to simply remove the pulp, while scooping out unripe or diseased coffee beans, then directly sun-dried for 2 to 3 days.

However, there is very little sunshine in the mountain areas, so most are simply air-dried before being bagged and waiting for middlemen to purchase. Therefore, most Toraja coffee beans (with husks) seen in the market are still extremely moist, and the coffee beans often become moldy.

To avoid such situations, after removing the coffee husks, we immediately bag them and send them directly to the dehulling factory in Rantepao for sun-drying for two to three days before removing the parchment, then send them to Makassar for sun-drying (because Makassar's sun-drying temperature is very high) and hand-picking for grading.

Coffee Information

Origin: Sulawesi - Sapan Mountain Area

Characteristic: The surface color does not easily darken during roasting

Variety: Non-Jember variety

Harvest Period: July 2010

Toraja Cultural Knowledge Sharing

The local ethnic group in Toraja is very different from neighboring counties and is the unique Toraja people. The cultural uniqueness of the Toraja people is as follows:

1. Architecture

The unique Tongkonan houses because locals believe their ancestors came from the sky and arrived here by boat. Therefore, to commemorate or perhaps to return to their ancestors' dwelling place in the future, they build their houses with boat-shaped roofs.

2. Funeral Customs

Toraja people do not bury their dead.

a. People of status: (not just anyone with money) can approach heaven, so they can carve holes in rock walls to create hanging coffins. People of status, after death, locals will carve wooden sculptures of their image and place them outside their coffins as memorials.

b. Ordinary people: will build cemeteries in their own fields, shaped like ordinary houses but without windows.

c. Children: If a child dies before reaching one year of age, according to traditional customs, the child will be tied to a sacred tree, allowing the child to return to heaven along the sacred tree.

d. Those without money for burial: will be placed in their original living room at home until they have money for burial.

e. Funeral ceremonies: These are more expensive than weddings. During funerals, cattle must be killed because cattle are regarded as protective deities locally. They must ask the protective deities to escort the deceased back to heaven.

f. Cattle: Most cattle in Toraja are water buffalo, with very few yellow cattle locally. Cattle are not the main meat for consumption locally but are sacrificial items.

Therefore, a general water buffalo costs about 25 (approximately over 80,000), while those with white spots on their heads start at 70 (approximately over 200,000 New Taiwan Dollars), and those with completely white heads start at 200 (approximately over 600,000 New Taiwan Dollars).

Believe me, you didn't misread these numbers.

This is also why when someone in an ordinary family passes away, they often have to wait three to five years before they can hold funeral ceremonies for the deceased.

g. Funeral record: In 2005, when the county magistrate's mother-in-law passed away, the magistrate booked the local stadium and held continuous funeral banquet services for seven days. It was reported that 500 pigs and 500 cattle were killed in total, with total expenses exceeding 5 billion Indonesian Rupiah (please calculate yourself, I'm not good at math, divide by the exchange rate of 300).

However, at that time, the KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) had no jurisdiction over Sulawesi, so he got away completely.

3. Harvest Festival-like Celebrations

Every December after the last rice harvest, the local area holds activities similar to harvest festivals to thank heaven for its care throughout the year. There will be bullfighting at the harvest festival, but it's "water buffalo"...

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