A/X Kenta - Papua New Guinea

About this coffee…

Coffee is Papua New Guinea's second largest agricultural export. The majority of the coffee is grown in the highlands, covering a total of 210,000 acres of ground. Small farmers tend to grow the coffee alongside other crops and the product is mostly certified as 'organic coffee'. 

Papua New Guinea produces coffees that are revered for their fascinating acidity and variety. Plus, the island itself is notable for its extraordinary, mountainous topography and the incredible cultural diversity of its thousands of indigenous groups.

Historical changes in infrastructure have reduced the number of centralised coffee plantations in Papua New Guinea. Today, many of its plantations are collections of “coffee gardens”— small plots of as few as 20 plants that are grown alongside subsistence crops. With new processing methods being introduced, these already-incredible coffees continue to increase in quality and consistency.

The A grade, according to a new national system, means the cup is uniform, clean, “reasonably balanced,” and has a “pronounced body and acidity, rich and distinct fragrance and aroma.” The X means that the largest and smallest beans were left out of the sample for greater uniformity.

With increased introduction of modern processing methods, these already incredible coffees continue to grow in quality and consistency. Kenta is the A grade offering from NGHCE. It is grown in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea on the outskirts of the town of Goraka at an altitude of 1600m above sea level. The cherry is handpicked by the whole clan and then pulped on the same day and fermented in cement vats for 36 hours. After the fermentation process the coffee is washed with fresh mountain stream water from the nearby Tua River. The coffee is then sun dried to give it a nice even bluish colour, which can take 7-12 days. The labour in the processing operation is also from the surrounding villages and ranges through the year from 20 up to 60 people in the peak season (this does not include the clan cherry pickers). The total community in the area who rely on the coffee exports is around 10000 to 12000 people.

Origin:  Papua New Guinea

Region: Kenta, Goraka, Eastern Highlands

Varietal: Typica, Arusha, Bourbon

Grade: A/X

Altitude: 1,600 m above sea level

Certification: Smallholder Farms

Processing: Washed

Cup Score: 83.75