Papua New Guinea Coffee: The Underdog Origin

Spotted: a coffee origin with more than 800 languages, where some of the harvest leaves the farm by small plane from a bush airstrip. This is not a supply chain. It is an adventure novel you can drink.

Short answer: Papua New Guinea coffee is grown mostly by smallholders in highland "coffee gardens", tiny plots that can hold as few as 20 trees. Volcanic soil, tropical rain and high altitude give it a syrupy body and fruit-forward flavour. Getting it from the garden to a roaster is hard, which is why a great lot is worth noticing.

Coffee gardens, not estates

Most of the country's coffee, by common estimates more than 85 per cent, comes from smallholder gardens where coffee trees grow alongside the family's food crops. It is a fragmented system, and yet it produces some very complex cups. The altitude climbs to nearly 2,000 metres in places, and the growing conditions do the rest.

Why it is so hard to get out

Do not let the romance fool you. After harvest, parchment coffee typically passes through roadside buyers and middlemen before it ever reaches an exporter. The Highlands Highway is the main road out, and it is a long, difficult route where theft is a known risk. The fact that a clean, traceable lot arrives at all is a small miracle.

What it tastes like

Expect weight and sweetness, with fruit on top. Our example is Papua New Guinea Peter Seed, a fully washed lot grown at 1,650 metres in the Asaro district by Peter Seed. His trees are old, thick-trunked and of mixed heritage, likely Typica, Bourbon and Mundo Novo among them. In the cup: tangerine and golden pear up front, a silky oolong tea middle, and a finish like mulled wine and plum.

It is a washed coffee, so the flavours are clean and defined. If that is your style, see the rest of our washed coffees, or read how washed, natural and honey processing differ.

What comes next for the origin

Coffee matters enormously here. In 2022 the country created a dedicated government ministry for coffee, with the stated aim of growing production. The challenges are real: ageing trees, the coffee berry borer pest and fragile infrastructure. That is why we love it, darling. It is the underdog story, and every good cup is a toast to the farmers who keep going.

Quick answers

Is Papua New Guinea coffee Arabica?

The highland coffee that specialty roasters buy is Arabica, often old Typica and Bourbon lineages.

Does it taste like Indonesian coffee?

Not usually. Washed highland lots like this one are cleaner and fruitier than the earthy profile many people expect from the region.

How should I brew it?

As a pour-over, with water at around 93°C. Let it cool a little before you sip so the fruit shows up. If it tastes off, our extraction guide will sort it.

Read next: Terroir vs Fermentation: Who Gets Credit for the Flavour? · Washed, Natural, Honey: Coffee Processing Explained · Coffee Varieties, Explained: Bourbon, Caturra, Gesha and More

You know you love it.
xoxo, The Angry Roaster