A Brief Introduction to Papua New Guinea Coffee: What Are the Flavor Characteristics of Bird of Paradise Coffee Beans?

If you enjoy coffee with a balanced and rich flavor profile, FrontStreet Coffee's barista would first recommend a coffee bean from Papua New Guinea—the Paradise Bird. This coffee uses washed processing and medium-dark roasting, presenting distinct aromas of hazelnut, toasted bread, sugarcane, and caramel, while maintaining a light, delicate fruit acidity. The taste is balanced and clean, earning it the reputation of "Little Blue Mountain."

Where is Papua New Guinea Located?

Papua New Guinea is an island nation near Indonesia, featuring a tropical rainforest climate with abundant forest resources. The highlands, situated at elevations between 1300-1800 meters, are ideal for coffee cultivation. As a former British colony, Papua New Guineans introduced Typica seeds from Jamaica in 1931, which gradually accelerated the commercial development of coffee.

Papua New Guinea is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Coffee is the only cash crop in the Papua New Guinea highlands, accounting for 40% of the country's total output, with over 2 million small farmers relying on coffee cultivation for their livelihood throughout the year. The coffee produced is mainly distributed in mountainous areas at elevations ranging from 1500 to 1900 meters. This region boasts picturesque scenery with abundant rainfall and volcanic soil, making it perfect for growing high-quality Arabica coffee beans.

In the 1930s, the British introduced Typica coffee from Jamaica to Papua New Guinea. Since Jamaica's most representative coffee is the Typica-based Blue Mountain coffee, Papua New Guinea coffee earned the beautiful reputation of "Little Blue Mountain." Papua New Guinea's coffee growing regions are located at 6 degrees south latitude, closer to the equator than Jamaica's Blue Mountain region at 18 degrees north latitude, giving Papua New Guinea coffee beans a sweet and sour dark fruit flavor profile.

In addition to Jamaica's Typica Blue Mountain, Papua New Guinea introduced the Bourbon variety from Kenya in 1950, followed by Mundo Novo and Caturra from Brazil in 1962, greatly enhancing the diversity of local coffee cultivation. Particularly in 1975, frost disasters severely impacted Brazilian coffee cultivation, allowing Papua New Guinea's coffee industry to develop opportunistically.

FrontStreet Coffee's "Little Blue Mountain" is selected from the Sigri plantation in the Western Highlands, established in 1950 as a local coffee pioneer. The Paradise Bird plantation is located in the Waghi Valley, which features diverse ecological natural resources, including Papua New Guinea's national symbol: the Paradise Bird. The high-altitude island climate here is remarkably similar to Blue Mountain's, but being closer to the equator, Papua New Guinea coffee also has additional sweet and sour dark fruit notes compared to Blue Mountain.

FrontStreet Coffee: Papua New Guinea Paradise Bird Coffee Beans

Country: Papua New Guinea
Origin: Sigri Paradise Bird Plantation
Altitude: 1600-1800m
Grade: AA
Variety: Typica
Processing: Washed
Flavor: Nuts, cocoa, gentle citrus acidity, cream, caramel aftertaste

PNG's green bean grading system is the same as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Puerto Rico, using bean size as the grading standard. FrontStreet Coffee's Paradise Bird is of the highest AA grade. Although bean size is not an absolute standard for flavor quality, it serves as a highly relevant reference for coffee beans from certain regions. These areas produce robust, well-formed mature beans that best showcase excellent flavors. Consistent maturity, hardness, and moisture content factors make the roasting process easier to achieve uniform, perfect flavors, so many emerging coffee regions also adopt this as their grading method.

As an ancient Arabica variety, Typica coffee possesses a unique clean flavor with balanced taste. To highlight this bean's clean flavor, Paradise Plantation uses washed processing: after harvesting ripe coffee cherries, they are transported to the washing station for three rounds of soaking, washing, and fermentation, with each soak lasting 24 hours. After washing is complete, dehulling and drying are performed. This method better expresses the coffee's own bright, delicate fruit acidity and clean, lingering sweet taste.

Since Typica is a less dense green bean, FrontStreet Coffee's roasting recommendation is medium roast to highlight the coffee beans' nutty cream notes and preserve fruit aromas. This allows you to experience the grapefruit citrus aroma and bright, juicy fruit texture of the coffee beans themselves, with tea-like notes and cocoa aromas emerging in the middle to later stages.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Dripper: Kono dripper
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind: 75% pass-through rate on #20 sieve
Temperature: 88-89°C

FrontStreet Coffee discovered that using a Kono dripper for brewing can better present the richness of this coffee, extracting the nut and cocoa aromas more fully. For this brew, FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction. Start with 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then continue pouring in small circular motions to 125g for segmentation. When the water level drops to just reveal the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the water level drops to just reveal the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the bloom) Total extraction time is 2'00".

Flavor Description: The dry aroma of Paradise Bird Little Blue Mountain has a subtle spiced fragrance compared to Jamaican Blue Mountain. When tasted, it presents the sweetness of nuts and toasted bread, with a hint of fruit sweetness and acidity that adds more layers to the flavor. The aftertaste is spiced sweetness, with an overall rich and balanced mouthfeel.

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