PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Vanilla / Cacao / Almond / 12 oz.

Roast: Dark / Notes: Nutty, Caramel, Spiced / Process: Washed

Farm: Small Farmers around the Kuta Mill / Elevation: 1350m

About the Coffee: PNG’s Nebilyer Valley is a broad and fertile high-elevation valley in the country’s western highlands. Mount Hagen, the largest nearby city of about 50,000 people, is extremely remote but also PNG’s third largest. Along with tropical fruits, spice, vanilla, livestock, and a huge variety of subsistence crops, farmers have been cultivating coffee here for about 80 years.
The Leahy family is considered the founders of the modern era in Nebilyer and nearby Waghi valleys. Brothers Mick and Dan Leahy, originally Australian prospectors, first entered the zone on foot in 1933, becoming the first westerners to make contact with the region’s indigenous tribes. To open access to the highland valleys, the Leahys built an airstrip that is now one of the main streets in the town of Mount Hagen.
By now the Leahy family has resided in the Western Highlands for many generations. Over time, coffee was established as a cash crop for the valleys’ remote farmers interested in western trade. The Leahy family, to support the industry as a peaceful and stable alternative to subsistence farming and local trade, has established an extensive coffee infrastructure in the valley that supports smallholders and larger estate owners alike through seedling distribution, organic fertilizer, processing, storage, milling, and exporting, all through the family’s Kuta mill.