Letefoho Specialty Coffee Roaster

Letefoho Specialty Coffee Roaster opened on Dili's beachfront in June 2014 as Timor-Leste's first third-wave coffee shop, arriving after nearly four centuries of coffee cultivation on the island had mostly stayed anonymous export material rather than something drunk and named at origin. The cafe takes its name from Letefoho, a mountain village in the Ermera highlands where its arabica is grown at roughly 1,300 to 1,900 meters above sea level and hand-harvested by smallholder farmers. Rather than buying through intermediaries, the roastery sources directly from these growers, work that has also created jobs in coffee and hospitality for young Timorese in a country where both industries are still young. The beans are roasted in small batches on-site and sold as whole-bean or ground bags alongside espresso drinks and cascara tea made from the dried husks of the coffee cherry. For visitors, it functions as an introduction to a coffee-growing country most drinkers only know as a line on a bag; for Dili, it was the first place to treat Timorese coffee as something worth serving, not just shipping out.