We taste: melon, cola, herbaceous, pear

Farm: several hundred local smallholder farmers
Region: Eastern Highlands
Processing Method: Washed
Elevation: 1,400-1,900 msl
Varieties: Arusha, Bourbon, Typica

We love to offer coffees from Indonesia, specifically Papua New Guinea, as often as we can because of their unique, yet crowd-pleasing flavors, mild acidity, and heavy body. This coffee comes from Namugo, which is the local name in the Okapa dialect for the mountainous rainforest region in which the coffee grows in the Eastern Highlands.

The majority of coffee production in PNG comes from smallholder farmers, each with around 1–2 hectares called “gardens” in which they grow small amounts of coffee and other subsistence crops. Less than 3% of the country is used for commercial agriculture, and forest makes up more than 63% of Papua New Guinea’s landscape.

Most of the coffee in Papua New Guinea is processed as Washed lots. Because of the very small size of the average farm, it is done at central processing units or washing stations that are privately or cooperatively owned and operated. The coffee is picked ripe and typically depulped the same day, then fermented for 24–48 hours before being washed clean of mucilage. Drying is typically done on tarpaulins or raised beds.

In the cup, this earthy, herbaceous coffee is balanced with a pleasant, mellow acidity that reminds us of cola, honeydew melon and pear. It has a creamy, syrupy body and holds up well in milk.