About This Coffee
Boka Plantation is less than 5 kilometers from our in-country partner, Baroida Estate. Cherry from Boka is delivered to Baroida’s wet mill where it benefits from Baroida’s expert knowledge and meticulous processing.
Baroida Estate is located in the Kainantu District, Eastern Highlands Province. The estate was founded by Ben Colbran in the 1960’s when the Government encouraged foreign agriculturalists to begin cultivating land throughout the highlands. The Baroida plantation is at the apex of the Lamari river valley and Mount Jabarra range. The plantation itself sits at about 1,691 meters above sea level amongst thousands of hectares of cleared land with former colonial coffee estates surrounding them (now run by native landowners) and flanked by mountains filled with small holder coffee producers who cultivate close to a million trees.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Meticulous separation for quality control helps maintain the high quality coffee that Baroida is well known for producing. Baroida’s wet mill keeps lots from its own farms, Boka Plantation and local small producers separate and keeps traceability intact for all 3 sources.
After careful sorting, cherry is pulped on disk pulpers. Then, it dry-ferments in vats for approximately 36 hours. Water is pumped into the vats in a circular motion to naturally agitate the coffee and remove any remaining mucilage. Coffee is then sundried on tarps, where it is turned regularly to ensure even drying.
We source the best quality lots, which are separated and allocated specifically for us before being hulled, graded and prepared for export.
Coffee in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a relative newcomer to the specialty coffee scene. The remote locations of the nation’s smallholders—who produce 85% of total coffee in the country—combined with historically-poor infrastructure has made the transition to specialty difficult. Nonetheless, the country is working towards innovative solutions that will hopefully lead to better quality coffee and improved livelihoods for the nation’s smallholder coffee producers.