Papua New Guinea Kimel Estate X

Somewhat exotic, lower acidity and lots of body. This smaller bean is a bit cleaner and sweeter than it's larger sorted neighbors. Still slightly complex and silky, this delightful cup is full of cocoa, caramel and cherry.

Arrival Date:  July 17th, 2017

Acidity & Brightness: Low to medium acidity, slightly crisp

Balance & Finish: On the complex side with a dry, herbaceous finish

Body & Texture: Big, rich body with a silky texture

Flavor Traits: Cocoa, caramel and cherry

Grade:  X (smaller beans), Single Estate

Processing:  Fully Washed, hand picked, sun dried

Varieties: Mondo Novo, Blue Mt. Bourbon, Typica, Arusha, Caturra and Catimor

Roasting:  Start with a Full City (Medium).  These dense Indonesian beans hold up to darker roasting if you prefer. Since the beans are on the small side, we recommend starting at medium and working your way up!

Reminder:  This is raw coffee.  You have to roast it before brewing!

Our Review: The Kimel Estate is located in the highlands of northeastern Papua New Guinea and is owned by local landowners, predominately members of the Opais tribe. The coffee is grown at elevations in the 4000-5000 foot range in an area with abundant rainfall and rich, well drained volcanic soil. All these elements combine to produce coffee's favorite growing environment, and set the basis for a very, very good cup. A lot of PNG coffee is grown on very small farms and has to be transported over very poor infrastructure to the drying and processing mill.  All too often it gets moldy and fermenty during the trip. Kimel is one of the larger coffee estates and has the advantage of being able to process the coffee right on the farm, effectively by-passing this hazard. The Kimel River (which the estate gets its name from) runs right through the estate, so there is a constant flow of clean water for processing. 

This is our first X grade bean from the Kimel Estate and we weren't sure what to expect, but we were certainly impressed! While some might think the X grade means a subpar quality coffee, it simply means these are the smallest beans that PNG sorts for when sorting specialty grade coffee. Remember: smaller doesn't usually mean lower quality! When we cupped this coffee, the first thing we noticed was the big, rich body and it's slight crispness which reminded us of a good Sulawesi coffee. It's lower in acidity like Sumatran coffee but with much less of the earthy "edge" that we usually find in Indonesian coffees, resulting in a clean, dry and herbaceous finish. It's got a pleasantly silky texture and a slight complex mixture of cherry, cocoa and caramel flavors.