“We had driven into the jungle for hours, crossing riverbeds and rice fields, hitting nearly every bump along the way. The driver of the rusted Land Rover turned to me as we passed a thick bamboo forest and grinned. 'This is as far as I took the National Geographic people.'

I smiled back, wondering how much farther we would go. Hours later, we stopped at a small market town in northern Toraja. Children ran toward us, interested, no doubt, by the novelty of a vehicle and its passenger from the West.

"It was market day and villagers displayed their goods. Their voices sang like birds as I passed by their dried fish, spices and peppers. I came upon a farmer with green coffee carried in fresh from his village. This was what I had hoped to find - the flavour of a distinct village's coffee. Discoveries such as this inspired our latest offering, Kopi Kampung, Sulawesi, Indonesia.”

Dub Hay
chief coffee buyer

Sulawesi's coffee has been a Starbucks favourite since we opened our first store 35 years ago, at Seattle's Pike Place Market. Back then, you would have encountered a coffee with big, spicy notes and a smooth, elegant mouthfeel.

Today's Sulawesi coffee possesses complex flavours, wonderful earthly notes and a full body. while we love this cup, we wanted to experience the coffee's classic taste once again. So we returned to the orchid-shaped Indonesian island and began searching.

Our quest was daunting. Nearly all of Sulawesi's coffee is grown by small landholders whose limited harvests are blended with coffee from surrounding villages. To find this treasured flavour, we needed to sample coffees from one village at a time.

In the market towns of Sapan and Minanga in northern Toraja, Sulawesi's most acclaimed coffee-growing region, we discovered flavours we hadn't tasted in years. These coffees are picked, sorted and milled by hand to maintain quality and are delivered fresh to market the day after harvest. The beans don't just evoke the classic Sulawesi flavour, they define it.

By working with exporters to purchase freshly harvested coffee from small villages, we hope to ensure that this distinctive Sulawesi flavour will be available for generations to come.