From source to sip
The story behind your next cup.
In the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the town of Goroka sits in a ring of volcanic ridges where coffee grows alongside garden plots tended by smallholder families. This natural-processed lot, drawn from cherries dried whole at the Lahamenegu mill, carries the bright, fruit-forward character that has made highland PNG coffee a quiet favorite among roasters.
Papua New Guinea grows some of the most distinctive coffee in the Pacific, and the Eastern Highlands Province is its heartland. Around Goroka, thousands of smallholder families cultivate small plots, often just a few hundred trees mixed into food gardens. The varieties here trace back to Typica and Bourbon stock introduced generations ago, and the rich volcanic soil and cool mountain nights shape a cup with depth and clarity.
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The Coffee Story
The SourceSmallholder Gardens of the Eastern Highlands
Papua New Guinea grows some of the most distinctive coffee in the Pacific, and the Eastern Highlands Province is its heartland. Around Goroka, thousands of smallholder families cultivate small plots, often just a few hundred trees mixed into food gardens. The varieties here trace back to Typica and Bourbon stock introduced generations ago, and the rich volcanic soil and cool mountain nights shape a cup with depth and clarity.
This lot was assembled at the Lahamenegu mill, which sources freshly harvested cherry daily from registered farms within a 30-kilometer radius. Elevations between 1,550 and 1,600 meters slow the cherries as they ripen, concentrating sugars in the seed. That kind of high-altitude growing is a defining trait of the region and a foundation for the fruit-driven flavors that follow.
The CraftWhole Cherry, Dried for Weeks
Lahamenegu is the only wet mill owned by an exporter in Papua New Guinea, which lets its team experiment with processing styles that are uncommon for the country. For this Red Mountain lot, cherries are dried whole on raised beds rather than pulped, a natural method that can take up to four weeks in the highland climate. Workers rotate the cherries regularly so they cure evenly, then rest the coffee in conditioning bins before hulling near shipment. You can read more about how natural and washed processing shape a cup.
The long contact with the fruit lets each seed absorb sweetness and berry character before the parchment is removed. We roast to City+, a level that holds onto the natural acidity and exotic fruit notes rather than burning them off. The result keeps the cup lively, clean, and unmistakably PNG.
The CupA Basket of Highland Fruit
This is a juicy, expressive coffee. The first sip leads with mixed berry and a wash of cantaloupe sweetness, then settles into dried cranberry and a tart, wine-like edge as it cools. A cane-sugar finish ties the fruit together without weighing it down.
The body stays light and the acidity bright, so the cup reads more like a glass of fruit juice than a heavy morning brew. It rewards attention, shifting in the cup as the temperature drops and the sweeter notes step forward.
