Roasted - Papua New Guinea Plantation

PNR-Pla-0.5-FCR

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About the bean

Papua New Guinea is a country with phenomenal coffee potential grappling with a variety of issues that have limited growth, including a lack of infrastructure - that being roads, let alone good roads. China's growing influence in the region has resulted in a $4-billion scheme to upgrade existing highways and provide the nation with its first modern road network - which is both a good and bad news story for one of the world's most isolated islands (roads, obviously, but the threat construction poses to wildlife and forests, as well as debt is a serious concern). The good news is PNG's natural confluence of climate, altitude and fertile soil are superb for our friend the buzzy bean and the country's new Prime Minister, James Marape, has an eye to capitalize on this. Investment in agriculture is key to PNG's future wealth, he says, and, to that end, the region is going to "get into coffee in a big way".

Currently, most of PNG's coffee is grown by small households in "coffee gardens" or collectively by villages - nice because the offerings are typically organic but iffy because quality is inconsistent. That isn't the case with our current crop of PNG sourced from the high-profile Sigri Estate located in the country's western highlands.

Sigri is recognized as a gourmet coffee producer with an international reputation for excellence. The care taken post-harvest to control for quality and uniformity is really something and includes an intense fermentation process that lasts three days, paused every 24 hours for washing. Once done, coffee cherries spend a further day immersed in water and this last step gives the result its unique flavour profile.

Unique and exciting.

Species: Arabica
Grade: B
Process: Washed; sun dried on raised beds
Harvest: Late spring to mid-summer
Altitude: 1,660 masl.
Cupping Score: 85.70 (a score of 80 points or above on a 100-point scale is graded "specialty" coffee)
Bird Friendly: Sigri uses two types of shade trees to protect its coffee plants and fields, which promotes the even ripening of coffee cherries and provides habitat for at least 90 species of birds.

Taste Notes

In the cup, Sigri's PNG is earthy with a wonderful complexity - sweet (citrus, tangerine and honey), creamy (hints of nut) with a peppery underlay (hickory). A standout vibrant acidity that mellows to a caramelized sugar aftertaste. Reminiscent of the Jamaica Blue Mountain Typica rootstock Sigri's Arabica plants originated from with a body similar to a Sumatran coffee. Aromatic and clean.

Roast recommendation: Light for the thrill of flavour. Popular as a filter coffee or espresso. Typically preferred as either a City or Full City roast. 
For an explanation of our different roasts, see: http://greenbeanery.ca/pages/roasting-chart