New coffee: Waghi Valley Peaberry
You will notice that some beans in this bag are a bit smaller and rounder. Why? It’s full of peaberries – rare coffee beans that are denser and much more flavoursome.
On top of that, our newest coffee from Papua New Guinea offers a complex fruity profile which is very unusual for varietals from this origin renowned for their chocolate notes and full body.
What is a peaberry?
Peaberries are a result of a natural mutation inside a coffee cherry that causes one single bean to develop instead of two flat ones. They make up only 5% of all coffee beans harvested and are known for their sweetness, full body and an intense aroma.
A large volume of coffee must pass through the mill to secure there is enough peaberry. Every bean undergoes close inspection which means only the highest quality coffee makes it into your bag.
Waghi Valley Peaberry was hand sorted from crops grown around the Jiwaka Province.
A special coffee from Western Highlands
In Papua New Guinea, 85% of the coffee produced is from smallholder growers with coffee grown in 15 of the 20 provinces. It is a major source of income for more than 3 million people living in the Highlands.
It’s great to see that more farmers are learning about best practices and investing in shaded drying beds to protect the flavours in the beans.
This coffee is processed and sun dried in a dry mill located half an hour from the provincial capital Goroka. The main source of water for the washing process is the Kamaliki river. To reduce the impact on the environment, the water is recycled and the shells and mucilage are composted to be used as a fertiliser in the nearby coffee nursery.
‘Growing futures' raises a new generation of farmers
The country’s coffee production has dropped from 1 mil to about 750,000 kg due to aging trees. Some of them are 60 to 70 years old (the average age of the trees in Brasil is 12-14 years) and have low yields. The solution lies in replanting, incentives to cultivate existing farms and proper education of farmers.
The project ‘Growing Futures’ is run by Nowek Coffee who donate all coffee seedlings grown in their nursery to local schools and communities.
Young trees bring better yields and provide a source of income for future generations of farmers whose families rely on the income from coffee production. Help us reach their goal of 100,000 distributed seedlings a year.
