Papua-Neuguinea

Location: Kunjin Mill, Papua New Guinea

Cultivar: Blue Mountain Typica, Arusha

Processing: Washed

Tasting notes: Sweet, citrus, cocoa, toffee, grapefruit

Roast: Espresso, automatic machine 

A true hidden gem: From the very beginning, we’ve had a hard-to-hide fondness for coffees from Papua New Guinea, which we source from Kunjin Mill together with our partners at Cafe Imports and Hacofco.

What few people know is that German entrepreneurs brought coffee to Papua New Guinea in the 19th century—originally to sell it to neighboring Australians! To this day, coffee from Papua New Guinea receives little attention, but it shouldn’t: What has developed here in the shadow of the coffee world’s attention is truly remarkable.

Papua New Guinea remains completely unique in the coffee world. There are a few estates and plantations, but most coffee production comes from smallholder farmers, each of whom owns about 1 to 2 hectares of land, known as “gardens,” where they grow small quantities of coffee alongside everything else a family or community needs.

The country’s many Indigenous groups often differ greatly in their customs and languages, and individual communities often consist of just a few hundred people, making communication and the cultural sensitivity required for doing business challenging. Less than 10 percent of the population has access to the internet, and there are about 55 phones (landline and mobile) for every 100 people.