Washed coffee from Papua New Guinea! This is a new relationship for us and our first coffee from Papua New Guinea (PNG). While a historic coffee producer, crops from PNG have in recent years fallen out of favor with specialty coffee roasters due to reliance on a wet hulling process that facilitates faster drying and has the potential to introduce defects. This peaberry from the Bunum Wo Estate is unique, not just for its meticulous processing, but for a unique bright & fruity flavor profile that’s reminiscent of much higher grown Kenyan coffees. We taste tart blackberry, sweet lemonade, & molasses. From our importer: “All coffee bearing the Bunum Wo name is grown at over 4500 feet elevation. Bunum Wo considers soil and water conservation as a priority and the estate is bird and eco-friendly. Bunum Wo employs a medium density shade strategy, using two types of shade trees. This promotes even ripening of coffee cherries and provides habitat for at least 90 species of birds. Bunum Wo is a washed Arabica coffee that undergoes a rigorous wet factory process. Quality Control begins in the field; Cherries are hand-picked and carefully checked for uniformity; it must be red and fully ripe which allows for the correct balance of sugar and acid within the cherry. This selected cherry is then pulped on the day of picking. A fermentation process follows, a period of three days broken every 24 hours by washing – but unlike many other coffees, the Bunum Wo process follows this by total immersion in water for a further day. This balances the flavors. After sun-drying, the coffees are carefully conditioned for 21 days. This is followed by destoning, hulling, grading, densometric sorting, color sorting, and finally hand sorting.”