May, 2008

Specialty Estate Coffee of the Month - Purosa Organic (Papua New Guinea)

By popular demand, we have pleasure in repeating December 2003’s Speciality Estate Coffee of the Month from Purosa.

Located in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Purosa now counts coffee production as the number one cash crop. More than 2,200 growers are currently registered with Coffee Connections Limited in grower groups. These villagers live in such remote places, that their coffee must be picked up by airplanes on grass landing strips, or for those lucky enough to have road access, it must be trucked to the nearest town. This, however, can only be done in the dry period which thankfully falls in harvest time.

Over 2 million people (40% of the country’s total population) depend both directly and indirectly on money earned from coffee to purchase household items. The typical village grower of organic beans planted his crop 10-20 years ago and uses the cash from the sale of his beans for payment of school fees, bride price and other cultural commitments.

The concept of Organic Coffee was first introduced into PNG in 1991 and even today there are only three areas with Organic Coffee Certification, with Purosa as one of the more sought after growing regions. On average over the past five years, 400 tons of Certified Organic Coffee has been exported annually from PNG, which is roughly 0.5% of the PNG total coffee production.

Since the advent of our exporter, Coffee Connections Ltd. into the PNG Organic Coffee market, growers have improved their techniques with a noticeable rise in quality which is proportionate with the higher price that their coffee is now returning on the world stage. Growers have received generally a higher price under the Organic Program than they otherwise would have and this reflects in better husbandry of the crops.

Our Purosa Organic Coffee is best described as having a chocolate, nutty flavour with a slightly fruity finish. These are the superb qualities that position Purosa Organic Coffee at the forefront of the worldwide demand.

ENJOY!
The Koffee Baron