Gently Stirred
Loose Leaf Tea
Timor-Leste Quirilelo Estate
It’s always a pleasure to have a call from fellow roasters, so when Jim
phoned and said, “did I want to do a blind tasting of three single estate
organic East Timor beans”, I was on my way before the call ended. We pleasingly
both selected the same Estate feeling that although all three were good this
one was superior. Timor-Leste is the world’s 2nd youngest nation, gaining
independence from Indonesia in 2002. The Quirilelo Estate, in the district of
Liurai in the municipality of Aileu, grows the renowned ‘Hybrido de Timor’
strain of Coffea arabica, known for its high resistance to Coffee Rust a
disease that devastated coffee production for years. In the 2018 Timor coffee
competition the Quirilelo Estate came 7th scoring 83.38. Interestingly when Jim
and I had selected our favourite we were pleased to discover that of the three
it was the least expensive, always pleasing. The beans are Honey Processed, one
of the benefits of this is that the process uses less water. This method allows
the cherries to be de-pulped but then left to dry.