Organic Papua New Guinea Timuza
The sun came out today! After another week of stormy weather, even snow, the sun is peeking through again. I've heard there's a chance of more snow this weekend, but it's a weak system and more sunshine is predicted for next week. It sounds like a good break from all this rain we've been having--we are over seventy inches since October 1st. Despite the storms, spring is coming. I heard Sandhill Cranes flying overhead today (listen to them
here), and the robins are greeting the dawn outside my window each morning.
 |
|
|
Can you believe this happy fellow is seven months old? He loves to play in the office while mom works. |
This week we have a coffee from Papua New Guinea. I have never been there, but my mother teaches in an international school there, so I have learned a lot about the country. Papua New Guinea (PNG) is an independent country that shares the island of New Guinea with Indonesia. It's the worlds second largest island, after Greenland, and the geographic and cultural diversity is astounding. There are over 800 different languages in PNG, and the topography ranges from sea level to above 14,000 feet.
Our coffee comes from the Eastern Highlands Province, the same province where my mother lives. This is coffee grown at elevation, with most farms above 6000 feet elevation. As I've written before, in general, higher grown coffees are also higher quality, with denser beans and lower yields. This coffee comes from a cooperative mill, Timuza, whose members all grow their coffee organically. You can read about them on the PNG Coffee Corporation page
here.
The members of the co-op are part of the Kamano tribal group, and according to
our broker:
"Farmers have received training and assistance in financial management, gender equality, coffee husbandry and standards for processing through local partners. The harvest takes place from April through September, with selective harvest of ripe cherry, manually pulping, fermentation in traditional bilum bags, washing, and full sun-drying. In 2016, Timuza placed 1st in the National Cupping Competition."
This is a stellar coffee, which has beautiful fruit flavors in the cup. Come see for yourself why it placed first in the national competition--you can even try it on us with the code
high grown this week. I'm going to drink it this week in honor of my mother. I know that Mother's Day isn't until May, but it's always a good time to say thank you to those that raised us. So here's to you mom, across the ocean. Cheers!
--Holly Fike
