Papua New Guinea Kange Talu

Talu is a coffee mill in the growing region of the Highlands -- a mountainous and densely forested jungle region between 5,000 and 7,000 ft elevation. It was entirely uninhabited until the 1930's and largely remains wild and untouched. The co-op growing this coffee is called Kange, and the Crop to Cup importers worked with them this year to bring their coffee to the global market. It does not have organic certification, but Papua New Guinea is organic by law, so certification is not necessary on coffee from here.

The beans are largely made up of Bourbon varietal, but also some Caturra and Typica mixed in. It is not sorted by bean size, but that's not always a bad thing. It can allow for a very slight variation in roast level within the beans, which makes for a more interesting mug of coffee -- I wouldn't worry about it in the least.

I love this one as a light roast -- get through the first cracks, but don't take it too much beyond that -- four or five degrees at most. This bean is complex in taste, juicy, sweet, a little bit buttery, and has exotic fruity notes. I would describe it as passionfruit with brown sugar sprinkled on it, and then an aftertaste of currants. If you get it too light you'll get some undeveloped flavors that are grassy or vegetable tastes, so give it a few degrees darker next time. If you get it too dark, you lose the sweetness, so if you're not getting the sweetness and fruits, nudge it a little lighter. January 2016 USA arrival