Country: Papua New Guinea
Region: Kainantu, Eastern Highlands
Varietal: Arusha, Mundo Novo, & Typica
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1,420 - 1,600 MASL
Cupping Notes: Cacao Nibs, Fruit Cake, Vanilla
Recommended Roast:City to Full City+
Good For:Pour Over, Auto Drip, Espresso

Description:Timuza is produced by a group of certified farmers within the Timuza/Namura cooperative, with New Guinea Highlands Coffee Exports (NGHCE).

The group consists of 207 coffee families, who together farm 274 hectares. The soil is loamy and rich with volcanic ash, the weather is hot and wet year round, and the coffee is shaded by Casuarina (a weepy evergreen), Albizia (also known as silk trees), Schzomeria (used for the interior of the Sydney Opera House) and Stemona (a family of vines).

Coffee was established here in the 1930s, though commercial production dates to post World War II. The first plants were brought in by Lutheran missionaries, for their own consumption, and are said to be decedents of Blue Mountain plants.

NGHCE regularly works with these producers on improving plant husbandry and post-harvest processes for quality, as well as in financial planning and social programs such as gender awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention. The co-op is also audited for its Organic certification each spring.

The coffee is hand picked, hand pulped, washed in clean river water, dried in the sun and delivered as parchment to the receiving station, where it’s machine hulled and polished.

The receiving station also has its own tiny warehouse. Because producers will travel quite a distance to deliver to the co-op, which appreciates and pays a premium for quality, it's building a little sleeping loft in a corner of the warehouse, so that producers who arrive late can stay the night before returning home.