Papua New Guinea Roots AX

PROCESS	Washed
PRODUCER	437 smallholder farmers delivering to Mr. Tony Tokah
REGION	Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea
VARIETY	Typica & Arusha
ALTITUDE	1700-1900 meters
WE TASTE	Peanut butter, honeycrisp apple, & round
ROAST	Light
PACKAGE	12 oz, 2 lb, or 5 lb whole bean

Introducing Papua New Guinea Roots AX, our latest Adventure Series coffee! This coffee is the cumulative and delicious result of the hard work of 437 (as of late 2015) smallholder farmers from the Okapa district in Papua New Guinea’s famous Eastern Highlands. The ‘Roots #1’ group was founded by Mr. Tony Tokah, a smallholder farmer himself, who began working with his family and a group of about 200 from his community to collect and deliver coffee to the Monpi Coffee Exports mill in 2010. Since that time, farmers working under the name Roots #1 have more than doubled in numbers due to Tony’s commitment to purchasing coffee exclusively from farmers within his community,.

Producers associated with Roots #1 are committed to improving their livelihoods and their community using coffee production and marketing as their foundation. They strive to produce very high quality Arabica coffee in a region well-suited to this goal: with plentiful rain and rich volcanic soils, farmers can count on ideal growing conditions for their coffee. Although proper soil analysis is not feasible in this context, given the lack of specialized facility and cost of conducting tests, soil fertility has been observed to be particularly good within the community. Farmers sustain soil fertility not through chemical inputs but rather though keeping a good cover of leguminous cover crops within their coffee gardens. After receiving training from affiliates of Monpi mills, many of the farmers are also now applying coffee pulp to their coffee trees, as well. Pest and disease control is usually done by hand, and there is no need for irrigation as rainfall reaches 2,000mm per annum.