What Does Papua New Guinea Coffee Taste Like and How to Brew It

Estate: Kimel Estate

Today we'd like to introduce PB, which stands for Peaberry - what we commonly call round beans. Typically, a coffee cherry contains two seeds, which are the common coffee beans we see - one side is curved and the other is flat, shaped like peanuts. We call these flat beans. Peaberries, however, occur when a coffee cherry contains only one bean, which is oval-shaped. These account for a very small proportion of all fruit on a coffee tree. Peaberries are all selected manually, one by one, ensuring overall quality, so it's no surprise they taste excellent.

Coffee from Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea's coffee production isn't very high, and its coffee beans are all carefully processed washed Arabica beans. Generally, washed coffee beans are full of bright fruit flavors but without strong acidity. They are characterized by a silky-smooth mouthfeel and wonderful aroma, with moderate acidity - a rare coffee variety that combines high body with medium acidity.

Flavor Notes: Nuts, Sugarcane, Spices

In recent years, Papua New Guinea coffee has begun representing Oceania in the world of specialty coffee with its unique, high-quality washed Arabica beans. Papua New Guinea coffee is characterized by full-bodied beans, moderate acidity, and a rich, aromatic taste profile.

The Origin: Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is an island nation in Oceania. In Malay, "Papua" means "curly hair." Legend has it that in 1545, explorer Ortiz de Retez reached the island and noticed that most of the islanders had curly hair, so he called it "the island of curly-haired people," and the name has stuck ever since. Papua New Guinea lies east of Indonesia and has a typical island climate, located between the equator and 10 degrees south latitude. With tropical rainforest volcanic soil and plateau terrain at elevations between 1,200-2,500 meters, it's a paradise for coffee cultivation.

Local production isn't large, with about 85% of total coffee production coming from small farmers' garden cultivation systems. Small farmers join local cooperatives to share processing equipment. Coffee is Papua New Guinea's second-largest agricultural export by volume, demonstrating the importance of the coffee industry to the country's economy. Due to different coffee varieties from Indonesia, higher elevations than Sumatra, and the use of washed processing, PNG coffee's regional flavor is quite different from Indonesia's earthy, heavy notes. Instead, it has brightness, sweet-tart notes, and floral and fruit aromas, similar to South American flavors.

Papua New Guinea boasts a pristine, natural environment with vast, fertile land. Its unique volcanic soil and abundant rainfall create excellent natural conditions for coffee growth. Papua New Guinea's premium coffee beans are as beautiful and precious as the country's national bird, the bird of paradise.

Kimel Estate: A Unique Cooperative

Large plantations typically have their own washing stations, while smaller individual coffee farmers can better control the quality and flavor expression of their output. Located in Papua New Guinea's western highlands near the Kimel River Valley in the Waghi Valley, Kimel Estate, like many large plantations, has its own dedicated washing station. In fact, however, this is an estate jointly owned by many independent small coffee farmers from the surrounding Opais people - in a sense, it's a private cooperative. Due to excellent growing conditions and the washing station's stable quality control processes, the produced coffee has lively brightness while preserving a considerable degree of Papua New Guinea coffee's unique flavor characteristics.

Another special aspect is the diversity of coffee varieties cultivated at Kimel - so many that you can't count them on one hand: Typica, Arusha, Blue Mountain, Mundo Novo, Catimor, Caturra... and even more. In fact, just as one wouldn't put all eggs in one basket, most farmers plant different varieties to avoid the risk of poor growth or subpar production from any particular variety, which also creates interesting expressions in their coffee's flavor characteristics.

Brewing and Tasting Notes

For pour-over Papua New Guinea coffee: Use 15g of coffee, medium grind (Fuji Royal grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water and let it bloom for 27 seconds. Then pour to 105g and wait until the water level drops to halfway, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail end. Use a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, with a total extraction time of 2:00.

This Kimel Estate Peaberry offers hints of spice in the mouthfeel, followed by sweet and refreshing notes of nuts and sugarcane. It has a creamy, buttery smoothness, with a more substantial mouthfeel typical of peaberries. The overall performance is balanced and smooth. The flavor is rich, the aroma is pleasant, with no herbal or earthy notes. Its texture is as rich and full-bodied as a Van Gogh painting.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Coffee Workshop
Address: 10 Bao'an Qian Street, FrontStreet Coffee, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou
Contact: 020-38364473
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Origin: Papua New Guinea

Coffee Details

Country: Papua New Guinea
Grade: PB Peaberry
Region: Waghi Valley
Roast Level: Medium Roast
Processing Method: Washed
Varieties: Arusha, Catimor, Caturra

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473