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The Story:
Answer to obvious question: Timor-Leste (East
Timor) is a tiny island between Australia and Sulawesi.
Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 1999.
After the 1999 referendum for independence,
the Indonesian army and its militias devastated East Timor’s
coffee industry by killing and displacing farmers and their
families, stealing and destroying most of the coffee crop,
and destroying roads, warehouses, and other infrastructure
vital to the industry. In 2000, a group of farmers, in an
attempt to successfully market their coffee internationally,
united to form Cooperativa Café Timor. They obtained
Fair Trade certification in 2001. The majority of the coffee
is from East Timor and directly benefits the organic farmer's
cooperatives, rather than being directed to the pockets
of exporters and middlemen.
On a global scale, Timor is a tiny country
producing a tiny amount of coffee. But, in Timor, coffee
is the primary source of income for about one-quarter of
the population, supporting 44,000 families.
Timor is unique in that has its own varietal
named after itself. Timor has been cross-pollinated with
the Caturra varietal to make the Catimor cultivar. Farmers
appreciate Catimor for it's disease-resistance, yield and
rapid growth, but it does not cup as well as the Timor or
Caturra.
The Metropolis Timor is a combination of beans
to two regions - the Maubesse is higher-altitude and Aifu
is lower-altitude.
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