Where The Wild Coffee Grows

Coffee drinkers love East Timor's green beans but farming remains a life and death struggle in Asia's poorest nation.

There is not a single Starbucks outlet in East Timor but most of the green beans grown in the remote high altitudes of the country end up in their stores around the world. Organic coffee enthusiasts who flock to the franchise love the smooth chemical free blends from the beans which are lauded for their low acidity. After being blended with South American beans, Starbucks introduced an organic blend called Arabian Mocha Timor in 2005. Asia’s smallest, youngest and poorest nation is defined by post-independence violence and oil reserves but coffee there represents the great hope. Coffee accounts for 90 percent of the country’s non-oil exports, while 46 percent of East Timorese households rely solely on coffee for their income The crop has grown in the country for centuries. It accounted for half of the country's trade when it was a Portuguese colony in the late 1800’s, but during 24 years of Indonesian occupation the bumper business was neglected when the military took over - prices fluctuated and many coffee plantations were battlefields so the quality of beans worsened.