Why Is Papua New Guinea Coffee Called Little Blue Mountain?
Papua New Guinea coffee is often nicknamed "Little Blue Mountain" because its main variety shares a direct lineage with Jamaican Blue Mountain Typica. In 1931, Typica was carried from Jamaica to Papua New Guinea while Britain still held Jamaica, and the two origins share that root stock. Papua New Guinea treats coffee as a national crop.
Bourbon was introduced from Kenya in 1950, adding a second variety to the country's plantings. The Sigri Estate produces PNG AA lots from this Typica base, and drinkers who taste them often compare the cup to Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The shared variety and similar growing conditions explain the comparison, even though the two origins sit on different continents.
Papua New Guinea is a coffee origin that feels both familiar and unfamiliar to coffee lovers. Many people have heard of Front Street Papua New Guinea coffee, but few have actually tasted it. Those who have often compare it to the flavor of "Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee Beans," which is why it has earned the nickname "Little Blue Mountain." To investigate the origin of this name, Front Street specially acquired and listed this coffee. This article will provide a comprehensive interpretation of the unique charm of Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise coffee beans, covering its cultivation history, industry challenges, estate background, varietal characteristics, processing methods, and Front Street's roasting and brewing recommendations.
The country of Papua New Guinea is both familiar and unfamiliar to coffee lovers. Many people have heard of Front Street Papua New Guinea coffee, but few have actually tasted it. Some enthusiasts who have tried it liken it to the experience of "Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee Beans." In Papua New Guinea, coffee is a national-level crop. To figure out why Papua New Guinea coffee is called "Little Blue Mountain," Front Street specially acquired and listed this coffee to explore the answer together with everyone.
Papua New Guineans regard the beautiful Bird of Paradise as a bird of freedom and happiness, considering it a "gift from the gods." The Arabica coffee of PNG AA Sigri Estate, like the migration of birds, traveled a long distance from Jamaica Blue Mountain Typica coffee beans to Papua New Guinea for cultivation, carrying the same root lineage as Jamaica Blue Mountain.
Papua New Guinea Cultivation History
In 1931, Typica was introduced from Jamaica to Papua New Guinea. At the time, Britain had occupied Jamaica for nearly 300 years, and Jamaica's most iconic coffee was the Typica variety Blue Mountain coffee. Since Australia had friendly relations with Britain, it was quite reasonable for Papua New Guinea to be able to introduce Typica. FrontStreet Coffee uses the name "Little Blue Mountain" to introduce Front Street Papua New Guinea coffee to customers. After all, the historical reasons are there, well-founded, and the name "Little Blue Mountain" is indeed much easier to remember than "Papua New Guinea."
In 1950, Bourbon coffee beans were introduced from Kenya. Coincidentally, Kenya was also a British colony at the time. Government encouragement of open cultivation led to significant growth in the coffee industry during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1961, after World War II ended, the western half of New Guinea Island, formerly belonging to the Netherlands, declared independence under the name "West Papua," but just a few months later it was invaded by Indonesia, which had also gained independence. Indonesia established the province of Irian Jaya there. After 2003, it was reorganized into the provinces of Papua and West Papua. In 1962, Mundo Novo and Caturra were introduced from Brazil, and from then on the quality of Papua New Guinea coffee beans made a great leap forward.
Papua New Guinea's Coffee Industry: From Adversity to Diversity
According to a translation report by Finance Network, in the last century, member countries of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) had a quota system for coffee exports. To obtain enough coffee, Australia had to buy large quantities of Papua New Guinea coffee beans, because the territory still belonged to Australia at the time. In 1975, Papua New Guinea declared independence, and after the ICO abandoned the quota system in the 1980s, Australian coffee importers preferred to source coffee from around the world. From then on, Papua New Guinea's coffee industry began a brutal struggle.
Especially over the past decade, Papua New Guinea's coffee production declined by 22% from about 1 million 60-kg bags in 2009 to 800,000 bags today. The decline in production is largely due to the aging of coffee trees. In the more than 30 years from the 1980s to now, almost no one in Papua New Guinea has chosen to replace old trees, and no one has guided them on how to replant. Fortunately, in an ongoing support program funded by the World Bank and the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (since the program began in April 2010), more than seven million coffee trees have been replanted or restored. According to the World Bank, many farmers who participated in the first round of replanting have already seen improved yields.
Although Papua New Guinea has incredible soil conditions, with rainfall, weather, and climate all perfect—arguably possessing all the basic elements for making delicious coffee—for various reasons, Papua New Guinea cannot consistently produce large quantities of high-quality coffee. This has always been a problem in Papua New Guinea, mainly because more than 85% of coffee is produced by smallholder farmers. Unlike other coffee-producing countries with large numbers of independent farmers working small plots of land, it is difficult for international buyers to purchase coffee beans of consistent quality in Papua New Guinea.
The instability in quality lies in the difficulty of imparting coffee cultivation knowledge, because Papua New Guinea is home to as many as 10,000 tribes scattered across the country, speaking over 800 different languages, making it very difficult to disseminate professional coffee knowledge locally. At the same time, the complexity of tribal structures has also created land ownership problems. Because land changes hands or people fight over ownership, coffee plots have gone uncultivated. In addition to lacking knowledge and resources, smallholder farmers also lack the motivation to persist with coffee, because they rely more on subsistence farming. At the same time, growing coffee offers too low a return for them. For farmers in Papua New Guinea, the vast majority of their farming time is spent on food, and coffee can only rank second.
Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise Coffee Beans
Producing Country: Papua New Guinea
Estate: Sigri Bird of Paradise Estate
Altitude: 1600-1800m
Processing Method: Washed
Variety: Typica
Grade: AA
Sigri Bird of Paradise Estate
Papua New Guineans regard the beautiful Bird of Paradise as a bird of freedom and happiness, a "gift from the gods." The Typica coffee beans of Sigri Bird of Paradise Estate, like the migration of birds, traveled a long distance from Jamaica Blue Mountain to Papua New Guinea for cultivation, carrying the same root lineage as Jamaica Blue Mountain. This Blue Mountain lineage is also what draws attention to Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise coffee beans today. FrontStreet Coffee purchases every coffee bean hoping it has unique characteristics, and does not want different beans with the same flavor profile. This is also why FrontStreet Coffee spends a great deal of time on bean selection, adjusting roasting parameters, and many other steps. A coffee bean can have similarities to other coffee beans, but it must also have differences.
The estate was established in 1950 and has been operating for over 60 years, making it a pioneer of the local coffee industry. Bird of Paradise Estate is located in the Waghi Valley in Western Highlands Province, at an altitude of about 1,500 meters, with mineral-rich volcanic soil, a cool climate, fertile soil, and abundant rainfall. Bird of Paradise Estate also places great emphasis on ecological protection. To protect the soil and water sources, it refuses to use pesticides and insecticides, caring for the ecology and nearby birds. Bird of Paradise Estate has maintained a high-standard planting and processing system for many years. During the harvest season from April to September each year, only fully ripe red coffee cherries are hand-picked, achieving a perfect balance of acidity and sweetness in the coffee cherries. At Bird of Paradise Estate, cupping is conducted every day to ensure that the estate provides customers with consistent top-quality coffee. As a result, Bird of Paradise Estate has become a classic of the world's specialty coffee. As mentioned earlier, FrontStreet Coffee chose this Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise Estate coffee bean precisely because of the estate's strict production chain, which ensures the quality of the coffee beans.
Coffee Bean Variety — Typica
Typica coffee beans have an elegant flavor, but the plant is weak, has low disease resistance, and is susceptible to leaf rust. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the most distinctive feature of the Typica coffee tree is its bronze-colored top leaves, which some also call "red-top coffee." Typica beans are relatively large, pointed-round or slender-pointed in shape, different from the round-bodied beans of the Bourbon variety. Typica coffee has its own uniquely clear and clean flavor, along with balanced characteristics and a high degree of cleanliness in the cup.
Coffee Bean Processing Method
After harvesting ripe red coffee cherries, they are sent to the estate's own washed processing station for processing. The local washed processing method in Papua New Guinea differs from the washed processing methods of Central and South America.
It uses three rounds of washed fermentation, each soaking for about 24 hours, with clean water replaced to control the coffee's flavor. After washing, the green beans are hulled and then graded in various ways, such as AA, AB, PB peaberry, etc. This meticulously crafted post-processing method brings bright and delicate fruity acidity to the coffee itself, with a clean and lingering sweet taste. FrontStreet Coffee has found that producing regions with strict coffee grading systems share a common trait: their coffee beans are uniform in size and have fewer defective beans. In this case, during roasting, the color develops evenly, and the cup is much cleaner.
Front Street Roasting Recommendations for Front Street Papua New Guinea Coffee Beans
FrontStreet Coffee uses a medium roast for these beans because Typica is a low-density green bean. To highlight its naturally refreshing acidity and fruity aroma, the focus is placed on heat adjustment after first crack. The beans are charged at a drum temperature of 170°C, with the damper set at 3 and heat at 140°C, with a turning point at 1'36". At 140°C, the damper is opened to 4; roasting continues to 6'25", at 151°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is complete, and at 176°C the heat is lowered to 110; the damper is changed to 4; at 180°C the heat is lowered to 90, ugly wrinkles and dark streaks appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly shifts to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, the heat is raised to 183.5°C and at 10'08" first crack begins, the damper is fully opened, and at 188°C the heat is reduced to 60, with the damper fully open (adjusting heat requires great care—it must not be so low that there is no crackling sound; control the rate of temperature rise after first crack within 6°C). First crack development time is 3'00", and the beans are dropped at 198.5°C.
Front Street Brewing Recommendations for Front Street Papua New Guinea Coffee
FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a Kono dripper, because it has few ribs and they are located at the lower end, allowing the filter paper to fit closely against the dripper to restrict airflow, thereby slowing the water flow and increasing water-powder contact time. This allows for more coffee substances to be extracted through immersion, enhancing the full-bodied mouthfeel. It is suitable for medium-dark roasted coffee beans such as Front Street Golden Mandheling and Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee. Choose a water temperature of 88°C, which is a relatively low brewing temperature and can avoid extracting too many off-flavors from the coffee beans during brewing, because the darker the roast, the more off-flavors increase accordingly.
Front Street Brewing Recipe
Using 15 grams of coffee grounds as an example, use a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, a medium-coarse grind for pour-over (65% passing rate on a No. 20 standard sieve), and a water temperature of 88°C. Use a KONO MEIMON dripper.
Grind size: coarse sugar size, 75% passing rate on a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve. This time, a staged pouring method is used. Slowly add the coffee grounds, and for the first stage, pour 30g of water in a small circular motion in the center and let it bloom for 30 seconds. During the first pour, the dry coffee bed will slowly absorb water and expand into a "hamburger." For the second stage, pour 120g in a circular motion from the center outward, keeping the pouring height as close to the coffee bed as possible, moving slowly to avoid excessive agitation. For the final stage, pour 75g, reaching a total pour of 225g. Wait for all the coffee liquid in the dripper to flow into the server to end extraction. Extraction time is 2 minutes.
Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise Estate coffee flavor: mainly nutty and rich cocoa notes, with a slight berry sweetness. It tastes rich and balanced, with a sweet finish and soft acidity.
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
