Cupping Notes: Pear, toffee, red apple, tropical, hops
About This Coffee
"Tikukur" is a type of turtle dove native to the area this coffee is collected in; the nearby mountain also shares this name. Local farmers in this area sell cherry directly to the wet mill at Tenjolaya Ciwidey. From there the cherry is immediately pulped and undergoes a traditional wet-hulling process. Cherries are floated and only the ripest red cherries are selected to ensure high cup quality.
Wet hulling is a process devised in Sumatra and adopted throughout the region as a solution to rainy, humid conditions that make drying green coffee a challenge. Typically, farmers depulp freshly picked cherries, ferment overnight, and wash the seeds before selling to a mill or collector only partially dried. The coffee's husk (parchment) is removed much earlier stage than in a standard washed process, while the green seed is still soft and pliable; great care is needed to prevent excessive damage. After milling, the coffee seeds are then finally dried until optimum moisture content is reached.
Country of Origin: Java Indonesia
Region: Cipaganti, Jawa Barat
Producer Type: Small older Farmers
Processing: Wet Hulled
Processing Description: Fermented 16 hours
Growing Alititude: 1750 MASL
Plant Species: Arabica
Varietals: Catimor, TIm Tim, Typica, Gayo 2
Screen Size: 17/18
History of Coffee in Java
Although coffee was first planted successfully on Java around 1700, cultivation spread slowly throughout what would become the great archipelagic state of Indonesia. In fact, the green coffee of Java served as progenitor to the coffees of far off Central America and had begun its ascent to being considered, alongside Arabian Mocha, as one of the best coffees in the world, long before commercial cultivation spread to nearby islands. At the same time, it should be noted that nearly all coffee from any island in the Dutch East Indies was considered “Java” until the early 20th century, so whose to say what Java was before then.
Growing Coffee in Java
Some of the large coffee estates created by the Dutch 175 years ago can still be found on the volcanic Ijen Plateau at the eastern tip of Java, but most coffee farmers are smallholders growing coffee on an average of 1.5 hectare, many of them among a cluster of volcanoes in West Java, where coffee cultivation first began on the island. Although disease resistant Robusta became the dominate coffee crop, West Java has seen a steady increase in Arabica production in recent years. Arabica generally grows above 1200 meters and virtually all coffee is fully washed.