Biodiversity & Better Coffee
Far from typical coffee farms. Wild grown. Hand-farmed in the high-altitude jungles of Toraja, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
These words, you hear us say often at Toraja Mountain Coffee. But they’re important, if not critical, to what allows us to offer the best Indonesian coffee beans available in the United States. That’s because coffee starts at the farm. It’s a tree that produces cherry fruits. And coffee beans are the seed inside the fruit.
So yes, that’s right. Coffee is fruit juice.
Like any plant, coffee takes nutrients from the soil, water and rain. In industrial coffee farms, this means row after row of coffee plant, isolated from nature, fertilized, mechanically harvested, etc. It’s sterile, repetitive and the opposite of wild.
Our wild-grown, hand-farmed Indonesian coffee is also the opposite of those farms. Our plants grow in the high-altitude, remote, nearly-untouched mountain jungles of South Sulawesi, Toraja, Indonesia. The cherries are picked from the trees by hand. The farms are isolated and accessible sometimes only by buffalo and motor bike. The plants themselves are not industrially planted. They occur wildly. Amongst a true jungle of Indonesian flora biodiversity.
What’s biodiversity and why is it important for Toraja Mountain Coffee?
Biodiversity simply means that many species are living together harmoniously in one ecosystem. It’s important in the animal world, but especially important in the unique flavors and smooth, low-acid texture you get from our coffee.
Instead of the same plants rooting in soil over and over, our coffee plants live in the jungle. Almost free-form. As nature intended. Right next to them are other exotic, fragrant plants and spices including cacao, banana, durian, soursop, cinnamon, clove, vanilla and coconut just to name a few.
The result is a biodiverse family of plants with varying PH levels and root structures all digging in, aerating and working with soil. Exchanging sugars, proteins and water. This biodiversity of our wild, high-altitude coffee farms in Toraja creates a certain quality to the soil that can’t be replicated anywhere else. It’s the magic of this one-of-a-kind nature and terroir that allows for the growth, harvesting and roasting of the best Indonesian coffee available in the United States.
We hope you are enjoying these adventures in better coffee with us. Your support and appreciation will always be at the top of our mountain.
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