Over the last few years we have sourced a specific kind of coffee to serve as a component for our seasonal blends in order to bring out funky and boozy notes. This is our third year wherein we have sourced this coffee from one specific region and processing mill in the Jikawa province of the Western Highlands in the small island country of Papua New Guinea. The Kindeng Dry Mill sources its coffee from a network of over 1500 smallholders from the surrounding regions with elevations ranging from 1520-1770 masl.

There are a number of varieties of arabica that flourish in the rugged grasslands and mountainous rainforests of the Western Highlands, with this lot being composed specifically of Arusha, Bourbon varieties, and Typica. Papua New Guinea is an interesting origin, and though it has only been exporting coffee since the late 1920’s, it makes up an important part of the economy, serving as a cash crop for many smallholder producers, especially across the Western Highlands and the Waghi Valley. Coffees from these regions have become well-known for their earthy, spicy flavor profiles, and every year we look forward to fresh crop coffees to land on our sampling table as we seek out a new coffee to share with our community.

The natural process is a difficult one to perform even in the most ideal of circumstances, not least in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, as this region tends to be very humid with almost daily rainfall. This humidity, though perfect for the cultivation of coffee, makes the drying process all the more difficult, as cherries are dried over the course of a month or so, which is unusually long for most of the natural processed coffees we’ve come to know and love. However, it is for this exact reason that this coffee is unique, as this extended fermentation in the cherry imparts a wildness to this already distinct flavor profile.

If you’ve ever had a cup of our seasonal blends, Sweater Weather or Crop Top, you’ve had a little taste of this coffee, but this is the first time we have released it as a single origin, and we hope this will be a great opportunity for our community to try out something new and dynamic. This coffee is perfect for folks who are fans of a more adventurous cup!

This wild coffee begins with a plum wine booziness, and an herbal amaro, with a rich baker’s chocolate undertone.