Flores Island

Flores (Floor-ess) is an Indonesian island that has a few years under its belt now for exporting a specialty coffee and is starting to get a name for itself on the map and have bigger production.  This is a wet-hulled process, giving it the classic Indonesian character with thick body, smooth low acidity, and slight earthiness. 

This coffee carries official fair trade organic certification, rainforest alliance certification, and is packed in a grainpro bag for freshness.   The beans are perfectly sorted of even size, no defects or broken beans, and the color is that beautiful blue-ish hue that good Indonesians often have.  To get all of this in an Indonesian coffee is usually very expensive, but with Flores, it’s quite reasonable.  The complexity found in this bean is incredible!!  Coffee Review gave it a rave review, describing its flavor with pecan, black cherry, and chocolate, and tobacco;  I can't describe it better than that other than adding that there is a lot of sweet tobacco, a molasses flavor, nuttiness (hazelnut?), and no earthiness.  The kicker for me is the range of interesting notes that you are getting, all in one sip.  The sweetness, the roughness, the dryness, the smoothness -- there is so much going on that it makes your mouth immensely happy.  It is not so strange as to turn people off either.  If you liked Flores the past few years, this year's lot is pretty consistent with what you're expecting.  Officially it is sold as Flores Ngura Bajawa, but Ngura simply means "wet-hulled" which is the processing method across Indonesia.  And Bajawa is just the town which the coffee grows around.  Flores beans are distinct from other Indonesians, but also share a lot of the same characteristics (as in low acid, full body, roast well to the 2nd cracks, etc)

The minimum roast level is Full City+ (a few seconds into the 2nd cracks). It starts to get interesting although its still a bit weak and astringent.  A dry dark chocolate taste and nice body, smooth, pecan pie, tart plum, pleasant aftertaste.  Very drinkable but not spectactular. My sweet spot is 20 seconds into 2nd cracks (420 degrees) — a very mild chocolate, nutty, tobacco, pine, smooth, full body, fairly sweet, and a woodsy-like dryness on the sides of your mouth after swallowing that makes you reach for another sip. This is a clean Indonesian — don’t expect too much of that Sumatran earthiness.  Okay, JUST into the rolling second cracks (425 degrees), it starts to lose body, taste flat, pick up a little bitterness, and pick up hints of burnt chocolate. It’s still good, but loses all of its complexity and undertones. In fact, even 30 seconds into the rolling 2nds (430 degrees), it’s holding up as a decent coffee, and I would suggest that the tinge of burnt flavor and smokiness tastes great with a splash of cream, or as a single origin espresso.  But once you hit the rolling 2nds, you do run the risk of someone telling you, “your coffee tastes burnt.”

USA Arrival Sept 2022