When the Dutch first brought coffee to Indonesia, it was cultivated on large estates that would later become government owned after independence. The Rantekarua Estate remained mostly abandoned until the government gave cultivation rights to PT Sulotco Jaya in 1987. Since then, the 3000-acre estate has undergone heavy renovation. More than 500 acres has been converted into a natural forest, making the estate a beacon of innovation in matters of land conservation. Coffee is cultivated using organic inputs, including manure from more than 2000 sheep grazing on the estate.

During harvest, cherries are picked and taken to the Sulotco processing station in the Bolokan Valley. Cherries are floated in water for 24 hours to sort out the damaged ones. The remaining cherries are then placed on covered, raised beds, slowly dried for at least 2 weeks, and then stored until it’s time to mill and export. This is done in the same processing facility and includes hand-sorting as the final step. This integrated process from estate to export provides a tremendous advantage in managing quality and traceability.

We’ve had our eye on this coffee since we tasted it during an origin trip to Sulawesi in 2019, and we reserved several bags as soon as we heard it was on its way! This is a juicy, natural processed coffee that carries some characteristic herbal notes that Indonesian coffees are known for. We taste pomegranate and black cherry up front before it settles into soft herbal flavors that remind us of marjoram. This is a refreshing coffee that is delicious hot but would shine when served iced!