What are Papua New Guinea coffee bean varieties? What does Little Blue Mountain mean and is it good to drink?

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In recent years, Papua New Guinea coffee has entered the world of specialty coffee, representing Oceania with its unique high-quality washed Arabica beans. Papua New Guinea beans are known as the "Little Blue Mountain," a testament to their excellent quality. FrontStreet Coffee believes that coffee grown in this country is called Little Blue Mountain because Typica was introduced from Jamaica and cultivated in similar island-type climate and high-altitude conditions.

Intrigued by the "Little Blue Mountain" reputation, FrontStreet Coffee sourced a batch of Paradise Bird coffee from Papua New Guinea. Through roasting, cupping, and brewing, FrontStreet Coffee discovered that coffee produced in this country has the brightest and cleanest flavor profile among Asian coffees, with moderate acidity and quite mellow mouthfeel, overall possessing the balanced character of Blue Mountain coffee.

Geography of Papua New Guinea

New Guinea is an island nation located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, bordering Indonesia to the west and near the Solomon Islands to the east. The western half of New Guinea Island belongs to Indonesia, while the eastern half is Papua New Guinea. The local island-type climate is characterized by high temperatures and high humidity year-round. The average annual temperature in the plains is about 24°C, with temperature decreasing rapidly as altitude increases, and heavy rains in winter.

With tropical rainforest, volcanic rock, and highland terrain, and altitudes ranging from 1200-2500 meters, it's a paradise for coffee cultivation. The predominantly highland terrain of Papua New Guinea allows for growing multiple coffee varieties. Coffee is planted at altitudes above 1300 meters using organic and shade-grown cultivation methods. These various advantages result in coffee beans with rich mouthfeel, while also featuring nutty and fruity flavors. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the regional flavor profile of Papua New Guinea coffee differs from Indonesian coffee beans in Asia, which typically feature spice, herbal, and deep notes. Instead, PNG coffee has bright, sweet and sour characteristics, with floral and fruit aromas, more similar to South American flavors.

Coffee Cultivation in 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 Retes reached the island and noticed that most islanders had curly hair, calling it "the island of curly-haired people," hence the name that has been passed down. Papua New Guinea, located east of Indonesia, has a typical island-type climate, situated between the equator and 10 degrees south latitude. With tropical rainforest, volcanic rock, and highland terrain, and altitudes ranging from 1200-2500 meters, it's a paradise for coffee cultivation.

Local production is not large, with about 85% of total coffee production coming from smallholder garden cultivation systems. Small farmers join local cooperatives and share processing equipment. Coffee is the second-largest agricultural export by volume from PNG, highlighting the importance of the coffee industry to the country's economy. Due to different coffee varieties from Indonesia, higher altitudes than Sumatra, and the use of washed processing, PNG coffee's regional flavor is distinctly different from Indonesia's mellow and deep notes. Instead, it has bright, sweet and sour characteristics, with floral and fruit aromas, similar to South American flavors.

Large plantations typically have their own washing stations, while smaller individual coffee farmers can better control the quality and flavor expression of their output. The Kaimir Estate, located in the Western Highlands' Waghi Valley near the Kimel River Valley in Papua New Guinea, like many large farms/estates, has its own dedicated washing station. In fact, this is an estate collectively owned by many independent small coffee farmers from the surrounding Opais ethnic group - in a sense, a private cooperative. Due to excellent growing conditions and stable quality control processes at the processing plant, the produced coffee has active brightness while retaining a considerable degree of Papua New Guinea coffee's unique flavor characteristics.

Coffee Varieties Cultivated

Papua New Guinea primarily cultivates Typica. Typica has elegant flavor but is physically weak with low disease resistance, easily susceptible to leaf rust. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the most distinctive characteristic of Typica coffee trees is their bronze-colored young leaves, leading some to call it "red-topped coffee." Typica beans are larger, forming sharp conical or slender pointed shapes, different from the round-bodied beans of Bourbon variety. Typica coffee has its unique clean and subtle flavor profile, as well as balanced characteristics, with high flavor cleanliness.

Sigri Estate

After searching and tasting multiple Papua coffees, FrontStreet Coffee selected the washed Typica from Sigri Estate. Sigri Estate is home to over 90 different bird species, including Papua New Guinea's national bird - the Paradise Bird. Therefore, Sigri Estate is also known as Paradise Bird Estate.

Sigri Estate's parent company is WR CARPENTER COMPANY-PNG. With approximately 1000 hectares of Arabica coffee cultivation area in Papua New Guinea, Carpenter Company accounts for 80% of the country's tea and coffee bean exports, making it the largest coffee producer and exporter, exporting approximately 1.6 million kg of high-quality washed Arabica beans annually. Sigri Estate uses natural organic cultivation methods without any chemical fertilizers, hand-harvesting and selecting fully ripe fruits, processing on the same day of harvest, fermenting with natural pure spring water, drying by natural sun-drying methods, and adjusting for optimal dryness and flavor! After hulling, beans are carefully graded to ensure the best export quality.

Washed Processing Method

After harvesting mature red coffee cherries, they are sent to the estate's own washing station for processing. The local washed processing in Papua New Guinea differs from the washed processing methods in Central and South America. It uses three wash fermentations, each soaking for about 24 hours, with fresh water replaced to control coffee flavor. After washing, the green beans have their outer shells removed and undergo various grading, such as AA, AB, PB (peaberries), etc. This meticulous post-processing method brings bright and delicate fruit acidity to the coffee itself, with a clean and long-lasting sweet mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee: Papua Paradise Bird Coffee Beans

Origin: Papua New Guinea
Estate: Sigri Paradise Bird Estate
Altitude: 1600-1800m
Processing: Washed
Variety: Typica
Grade: AA

FrontStreet Coffee Green Bean Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee observed that the Sigri Paradise Bird coffee beans are large, complete, and emerald green in appearance. Typica is a low-density bean variety. To highlight the bean's inherent refreshing acidity and fruit aroma, FrontStreet Coffee focuses on heat adjustment after the first crack.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Experience

FrontStreet Coffee selected this coffee bean because of its grapefruit acidity, clear and juicy pear mouthfeel. Tea-like notes and cocoa also emerge in the middle to later stages, with high levels of cleanliness and balance, excellently expressing the characteristic flavors of Papua New Guinea coffee beans. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee used medium-dark roasting to bring out cocoa flavors and richness, enhance sweetness, while preserving fruit acidity.

Heat the roaster to 170°C, set airflow to 3, and heat power to 140°C. Return to temperature point at 1'36". When temperature reaches 140°C, open airflow to 4. At 6'25", temperature reaches 151°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. Reduce heat power to 110 at 176°C, airflow remains at 4. When temperature reaches 180°C, reduce heat power to 90. Bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast smell clearly transforms to coffee aroma - this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, increase heat to 183.5°C. First crack begins at 10'08", open airflow fully. At 188°C, reduce heat to 60°C, keeping airflow fully open (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that crackling stops, control post-crack temperature rise to around 6°C). First crack development time is 3'00", discharge at 198.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours of roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls marked with 150ml and 200ml measurement lines. Following SCAA standards, water TDS is around 150ppm - too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high TDS affects mouthfeel and easily leads to under-extraction. Cupping water temperature is 94°C. Cupping grind size follows SCAA cupping standards, with grind size controlled to achieve 70%-75% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve (0.85mm). Ratio: 11g coffee powder to 200ml hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, so extracted concentration falls within the 1.15%-1.35% golden cup range. Steeping time: 4 minutes.

Dry Aroma: Caramel, citrus
Wet Aroma: Herbal
Flavor: Nuts, cocoa, soft fruit acidity, cream, caramel

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Experience

Dripper: Kono Coffee
Dose: 15g | Water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Medium-coarse/coarse sugar size (75% pass-through on #20 sieve)
Water temperature: 89°C

*Regarding grind size, FrontStreet Coffee determines this through sieving. Based on the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCA) grinding recommendations for pour-over coffee, FrontStreet Coffee combines practical verification, using different grind sizes for brewing, and the resulting products show significant differences. Moreover, each coffee bean variety requires different grind sizes - this is the significance of sieving. If you don't have a sieve at home, FrontStreet Coffee suggests observing flow speed to judge - too fast flow means grind is too coarse, too slow flow means grind is too fine.

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, also called three-stage brewing: use 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour with small water flow in circles to 125g for segmentation. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When water level drops again and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time is 2'00".

Brewing Flavor: Toast sweetness, nutty sweetness, slight fruit acidity creating pleasant sweet and sour layers, special spiced sweetness in the aftertaste. Tastes rich and balanced, with sweet notes and bright acidity, having fruit-like aromas.

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