From source to sip
The story behind your next cup.
In the Ngada highlands of Flores, the Inerie volcano rises in a near-perfect cone above terraced gardens and shade trees. This is one of the youngest coffee origins in Indonesia, grown by smallholders who pulp and dry their cherry within sight of crater lakes and the Komodo dragons that gave this coffee its name.
Flores sits in the Lesser Sunda chain east of Java, a long volcanic island first charted by Portuguese navigators in the early sixteenth century. Coffee is a relatively recent arrival here, concentrated in the Ngada district around the town of Bajawa, where roughly six thousand hectares of gardens climb the slopes of the Inerie volcano. Smallholders interplant their trees beneath shade canopies, and the mineral-rich volcanic soil combines with cool nights and a pronounced dry season to slow cherry maturation.
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The Coffee Story
The SourceVolcanic Slopes of the Ngada Highlands
Flores sits in the Lesser Sunda chain east of Java, a long volcanic island first charted by Portuguese navigators in the early sixteenth century. Coffee is a relatively recent arrival here, concentrated in the Ngada district around the town of Bajawa, where roughly six thousand hectares of gardens climb the slopes of the Inerie volcano. Smallholders interplant their trees beneath shade canopies, and the mineral-rich volcanic soil combines with cool nights and a pronounced dry season to slow cherry maturation.
That slow ripening at high altitude concentrates sugars and builds the deep, structured sweetness Flores is known for. Most of the harvest is organized through small farmer groups, several of which carry Control Union organic certification. This lot is grown without synthetic inputs and hand-picked at peak ripeness, then sorted three separate times before it leaves the island.
The CraftWet-Hulled the Bajawa Way
The processing here follows the Indonesian wet-hulled tradition, known locally in Bajawa as Ngura. Farmers pulp the cherry on small hand-cranked machines, ferment the parchment for around twelve hours, and wash it clean the next morning. The coffee is then sun-dried on raised beds and patios while still wet inside, and the parchment is hulled off at a high moisture content. This early hulling is the signature of the method and the source of the rounded body and low, savory acidity that define the cup. To understand how wet-hulled differs from a washed or natural lot, see our guide to coffee processing methods .
We roast this coffee to City+, a medium-light profile that respects the wet-hulled character. The aim is to keep the heavy chocolate base and herbal edge intact without flattening them, so the cup reads as syrupy and savory rather than scorched. Roasting in small batches lets us track each lot of Flores closely as it develops.
The CupSyrupy, Savory, and Long
The first sip lands heavy and smooth, with deep dark chocolate and a soft sweetness of vanilla running underneath. As the cup opens, a savory spine emerges: cracked black pepper and dry cedar that give the coffee its woody, almost resinous character. Acidity stays low and composed, which lets the body carry the experience.
The finish lingers long and clean, leaving cocoa and warm spice on the palate. This is a coffee for anyone who wants weight and earthiness in the cup rather than brightness, a cup that tastes of the volcanic island it came from.
