Fresh Roasted Papua New Guinea Coffee Beans

Papua New Guinea is the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, the islands of the Bismarck Arhipelago and the island of Bougainville (one of the bases of the famed "Black Sheep Squadron" for you World War II aviation fans). It was ruled by the British until 1975. The main island is mountainous with deep, lush valleys. It is roughly the size of California, but with 1/6th of the population - about 6,300,000 people.

The coffee is thought to come originally, via the British, from seedlings harvested from Jamaica's Blue Mountain region. Four Beans' Papua New Guinea (PNG) comes from the Arokara estate. Like all the estate coffees from the area, the beans are we-processed. Like wine, coffee quality varies by year. Depending on the year and the harvest, Papua New Guinea coffees range from good to spectacular - they rarely disappoint, even in "bad" years.

Here's how Buff, the roastmaster, describes Four Beans' PNG:

"Medium roast - 'PNG' mellow and aromatic complexity with an apple wineyness, medium body with moderate acidity and broad flavor."

Four Beans' Diedrich IR-7 Coffee Roaster

Four beans has a Diedrich IR-7 roaster, in the shop. (Here's more information for you hardcore coffee roaster fans.) The coffee bar wraps around the roaster, so if it's roasting day you can watch Buff roast the beans! But, if you can't stop by on roasting day, here's a video that shows the roaster and explains the process. Enjoy.

See the video: Buff explain the wonders of the Diedrich IR-7 roaster

Tanzanian Peaberry Coffee

Tanzania Peaberry is a hand-selected, pulped, and fully washed coffee. The processing of the beans is very labor intense as special screens are used to separate the peaberrys from the rest of the coffee beans.

A peaberry is a naturally occurring phenomena. The two seeds inside the coffee cherry fuse, and the cherry rounds up to fill the whole fruit. Some coffee experts insist that the nutrients and associated flavors are concentrated in the remaining seed, producing a more intense coffee flavor than a normal coffee bean.

Tanzania is a tiny producer of coffee beans. Primarily grown around Mount Kilamanjaro (a volcano at around 19,300', it is Africa's tallest mountain) the conditions are ideal. The coffee trees are at an altitude of around 4,000', with rich volcanic soils and plenty of rain all year around.

Order Tanzania Peaberry from the online store. It's available in a medium / dark roast. Buff describes it as: "Medium body, very soft and clean in the cup. A rich and mellow treat."

Coffee from the Zimbabwe Enhoek Estate

Four Beans carries coffee from the Enhoek Estate in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. Zimbabwe has been exporting coffee to the United States for some years. It is a wet-processed coffee, grown on approximately 130 commercial farmers and almost 2 000 small-scale farmers. Most growers are in the mountainous Chipinge region in eastern Zimbabwe, bordering Mozambique. 

The flavor profile is described as similar to the acidy, winy-toned coffees of the other countries of East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya). The coffee has medium body and a full rich flavor culminating in a heavenly aftertaste.

As in Ethiopia and Kenya, the coffee is meticulously hand picked, fermented and sun dried on the farm, before being graded and bagged for export.