Papua New Guinea Roots No. 1

Roots No. 1 is the name of a co-op of 1500 families in the the Eastern Highlands.  The conditions are so perfect for growing coffee here. With plentiful rain and rich volcanic soils, they don't ever have to spend money on irrigation or soil testing. Pests are rare and pest control is just done by hand. The cost of growing coffee for these farmers is virtually nothing, which keeps the final price down but also makes it attractive and profitable for the co-op families.

It is grown at an average of 4,000 feet above sea level. 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. It doesn't always work, but with New Guinea coffees, it generally does, and with this one in particular, 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. There are some cocoa notes to the coffee, but the main undertone is milk. Like you already put cream in the coffee. When it's super freshly roasted I also pick up some tropical fruit notes, but those seem to be covered up by the milk taste within a few days. This isn't a bad thing! 

It's also a fair candidate for a very dark roast. 30 seconds of 2nd cracks gets you a full bodied Indonesian pot of coffee.

US Arrival: November 2020