Papua New Guinea Baroida Washed

This is an Eastern Highlands province coffee, which is where the best Papua New Guinea coffee tends to comes from. The region is locally known as Oceania. This is a microlot that was handpicked by the farm owner and set aside to be sold at a premium. Microlots are largely unheard of out of Papua New Guinea before now, so this was an exciting new direction for coffee being exported from the island.

The light roasts are fruity and savory -- mango, peach cobbler, with fennel and chocolate in the aftertaste. Really buttery. You really don't have to take it very dark. A couple degrees darker than a natural processed bean, but a roasting curve similar to a Kenya is going to get you right where you want to be. Acidity is nice in it if you rush the roast, and if you slow it down you get more of a citrus juicy mouthfeel. If you get any vegetal tastes, you're too light. You can also take it to the 2nd cracks, you lose the sweetness and the fruit, but it's a nice full bodied medium roast with a little earthiness and some savory/herbal tastes to make it interesting. However, you can also roast Papua New Guineas dark -- very dark -- as if it's a Sumatra, and it's really nice at this level. Think of a Sumatra with hints of spice and fruit, that's clean and sweet. It's a little pricey because of the attention they took for this lot, but it's the most interesting Papua New Guinea we've found so far this year.

USA arrival: March 2024