THE FARM: Compared to the coffees from nearby Indonesia, and Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea ("PNG") coffees can be a bit confusing. All PNG coffees are wet-processed, which explains why they have a brighter, more acidic profile, and why some basic aspects of the cup can be vaguely similar to Central America coffees. Most Indonesia coffees (Sumatra, and most Sulawesi) are "wet-hulled" which results in lower acidity, heavy body, and the funky "earthy" character.

The plantations are larger farms that have their own coffee-processing wet mills, so they are able to control all the variables of production better than the small-farm coffee gardens. Volcafe is the only exporter to own a wet mill in PNG. Since its purchase in 1995, the Lahamenegu wet mill in the Eastern Highlands has been refreshed with brand-new machinery to take coffee cherries to the next level in quality control. The mill’s supply chain services smallholder farms within a 30-kilometer radius and receives freshly harvested cherries daily. In addition to adapting local producers’ mindsets to approach coffee farming as a commercial business, Volcafe has also invested particular focus in building traceability programs and farmer profiles for the PNG green coffee it sources.

This lot is a peaberry selection. Peaberry coffee happens as a mutation where one of the two seeds inside the coffee cherry dies off, leaving behind a single, round-shaped bean. They are the exception, for sure, with most shrubs producing much less than 10%. Some people think that peaberries tend to be sweeter since a single seed receives all of the nutrients.

OUR ROAST: The dry fragrance has sweet smells of brown sugars and malted grain notes with chocolate-forward smells. The wet aroma has malty sweetness to it, with notes of molasses bread, and brown sugar in the steam. Our roast delivers deep chocolate and a note of blackberry with subtle hints of dried-plum.