Tag: Papua New Guinea
Barrington Coffee Roasters Papua New Guinea Kimel Farms Co-Op
This is one of the two coffees that I came back with after my visit to Barrington Coffee last month. It’s taken me ages to get around to writing about it, but I suppose there’s three reasons for that, 1) it’s summer, and we’ve been keeping busier than usual (which is saying something), 2) it’s summer, and with the rising temps my mind turns less often to thoughts of coffee, so while I drink it each day, putting the thought into writing about it is less common, 3) the World Cup – we’ve turned into soccer/football addicts and have been watching games during nearly all of our spare moments.
Nonetheless, I was lucky to get the chance to try this coffee. It’s unusual in a couple of regards. First off, it’s a peaberry coffee, meaning that the coffee cherry produced only one, rounded coffee bean. Most coffee cherries produce two haves of a coffee bean, which is why each coffee bean ends up having one flat side. Typically, peaberries account for ~5% of the harvest. The second interesting note about this coffee is that it is wet-processed, which is out of the norm for most coffees from Papua New Guinea. When wet-processed, all of the skin, pulp, and mucilage is removed from the coffee bean before it is dried, leading to a brighter coffee. In contrast, most coffees from Papua New Guinea are wet-hulled, whereby most of the skin, pulp, and mucilage is removed from the coffee bean, but not all. The beans are then left to dry for a period of time, typically up to a day, with the remaining mucilage on them. This produces a coffee with a more unique presence in the cup, sometimes a bit earthy, or funky.
The co-op that produces this coffee, Kimel Farms, is also fairly unique. Much of the coffee coming out of Papua New Guinea is from large plantations that have their own mills. In contrast, the Kimel Farms Co-Op incorporates both a central 620 hectare plantation and a number of smaller, privately-owned farms, and it is cooperatively owned by the Opais peoples of the Wahgi Valley, in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The farms are located at the high altitude of 5000 feet above sea level, and the varietals grown include Typica, Arusha, Blue Mountain, Mundo Novo, Catimor, and Caturra.
Tasting Notes
The beans were harvested in late December of 2009. Barrington chose a light/City+ roast, which has been my favorite roast level of theirs lately. It produces some very bright, nearly effervescent and exciting coffees. But this could have a lot to do with the time of year as well, since I’m typically a total sucker for Kenyan coffees at other times of the year.
In the cup, the coffee has distinct aromas of tobacco, citrus peel, dark molasses, mint, and cedar. The texture is smooth with a soft mouthfeel and notable acidity. Flavors of black cherries, walnuts, pecans, and fresh strawberry abound. The incredible finish brings gentle waves of melted brown sugar and cocoa powder accented by key lime.
Overall, I thought this coffee was pretty understated. It presented a nice range of flavors, a great finish, and was a pleasure to drink. It didn’t stimulate deep contemplation or outright excitement, but was just plain tasty. We enjoyed it quite a bit as we worked our way through the pound.
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Gimme! Coffee Papua New Guinea Sigri Estate
Here’s what I’ve been loving about this coffee: it’s flexibility. Normally I drink coffee black. But sometimes it can be a real treat to douse it with some half-and-half, very much like dessert (but best for breakfast!). This coffee takes exceedingly well to both, and expresses a very distinct personally both ways.
Papua New Guinea is an island off the north coast of Australia. As they do with many of their western or Pacific coffees, Gimme roasts this quite dark, a 5 on their 1-5 scale. I get the distinct impression that in their eyes coffees from this world best express themselves via a dark roast. Of the “Pacific Islands” coffees that they currently offer, three of the four are roasted to a 5, and the other to a 4. I can’t help but wondering if this is an approach taken by most roasters or not, and if so whether it is indicative of the unique terroir of coffees from this part of the world. Is there something about Pacific coffees that is best expressed by dark roasting?
The Sigri Estate coffee is one of the single-origin coffees from Gimme. The trees are grown at an altitude of 6000 feet in a soil of humic brown clay in the Wahgi Valley of Papua New Guinea’s Western Highlands Province. The varietal grown is called Kent (a varietal that is new to my ears) and the beans are washed.
As the roast indicates, this coffee is very dark. I don’t get much fruit on the nose. Instead there is smoke and a sense of depth and roastiness. This coffee smells like a cup of serious coffee. On the palate the coffee is much brighter. There’s some liquorice, spices (curry and cinnamon), nearly some raspberries, the roastiness comes back strong, and the acidity is very muted. The finish has a nice cocoa flavor, chocolate laced with a pleasant bitterness.
Gimme’s tasting notes for this coffee say that the aftertaste is “Sweet with a big behind”, and I think that, cheekiness aside, this sums the coffee up nicely. From start to finish the coffee gets better and better. Up front it gives off the promise of a great get-you-up-in-the-morning cup of coffee, midway the flavors begin to open up on your palate, and it finishes with a strong, full flavor that solidly lingers on your palate between sips. This is not a nuanced coffee, by any means. It is more like flourless chocolate cake, just full of serious depth of flavor, no fooling around.
And then, when you add cream to it, it’s like flourless chocolate cake with chocolate frosting on top, or vanilla ice cream on the side. Totally indulgent and over-the-top, but in the best way.
I woudn’t want to drink such bold every day, but it’s been a real pleasure diving into this coffee this week. This is a good interlude between the Intelligentsia coffees we were drinking before, and the Nicaragua Linda Vista (also from Gimme!) that is sitting in the cupboard for when the Papua New Guinea is done.
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