We have always been attracted to coffee from Papua New Guinea because they have a rich, full bodied flavor with notes of pine, molasses and cocoa. These heavy flavors that come out naturally in the coffee have allowed us to make a “lighter dark roast,” meaning that it isn’t roasted that dark, but it has all the body and flavor of a coffee that is. In 2019 we made our first trip to the Western Highland of PNG; this is different from West Papua which is a completely different province in Indonesia. The Western Highlands are inaccessible from the capital city of Port Morsby and are home to many different tribes and over 300 different dialects. Near the town of Mount Hagen are two wet mills where nearby tribes deliver coffee; the Kinding and Ulya wet mills. These mills are operated by Monpi Coffee and purchase coffee cherries from farmers in the Waghi Valley of the Western Highlands. In 2019 we decided to exclusively purchase coffee from the Kinding wet mill to be sold as coffee from the Waghi Valley. During this trip while driving through the Waghi Valley we learned about a producer by the name of Kenneth who was setting up his own washing station to process his coffee. In 2023 we started purchasing coffee from Kenneth and in 2024 returned to PNG to meet him. Kenneth Opints owns a 136 hectare plantation in the Waghi Valley that consists mainly of the Arusha variety with some bourbon, typica and blue mountain varieties. Today all of our Waghi Valley coffee comes from Kenneth; a producer that we hope to continue to buy from and support as we grow together and strengthen our supply chain.
