Profiles in Coffee Tasting V

Country Spotlight: Papua New Guinea

Beautiful beaches, confetti colored coral reefs and grassy plains are just a few of the idyllic backdrops to villages in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The islands also have large expanses of rain forest and breath-taking mountainous landscapes on the Eastern and Western sides. But PNG has something more than just grandiose scenery to offer us…great coffee. 

  The coffee we roast from PNG is fair trade and shade grown. It is grown in the Eastern Highlands in the Okapa Valley and is a wet-process coffee. If you remember from our blog, Profiles in Coffee Tasting IV, wet-process is one method used to dry coffee beans. The roast profile is a medium. It has a sweet, bright acidity, balanced body, caramel and floral overtones and slight cocoa in the finish.

As is the case in most coffee growing countries, PNG has two types of coffee: estate coffee and peasant coffee. The major differences are the size and machinery used to pick and clean the coffee. The larger estates have better equipment to use during the drying method, while the smaller farms sometimes lack the equipment.

About the Country:

Population: 6 million

Capital: Port Moresby

Language: English, Tok Pisin

Growing Altitude: approx. 5,000 feet

Fun Facts: PNG makes up 1/10 of the World’s official languages with 820. They gained their independence from Australia in 1975.