Papua New Guinea Sigri Mountain Water Decaf

About Papua New Guinea Sigri Mountain Water Decaf

Arrived May, 2013. Here is an unusual and especially nice Mountain Water Decaf from the Sigri Estate of Papua New Guinea.

Sigri plantation, situated in the Wahgi Valley, in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, was established in the 1950s and rapidly gained a reputation that has continued to grow with Sigri being internationally recognized as producing a gourmet coffee equal to the world's best for more than 20 years.

All plantings are exclusively Arabica, concentrating on the Typica varieties which originate from seed introduced to Papua New Guinea from Jamaica Blue Mountain Typica rootstock. Coffee is grown at 5000 feet in elevation. This year's coffee seems particularly striking with its ethereal hickory notes, a unique but not over-the-top flavor profile.

Main crop is harvested from May to July. All growing and processing practices follow a system which has been throughly proven over many years, and insists on the highest standards and quality at every stage.

Sigri coffee undergoes a rigorous wet factory process. Quality control begins in the field; coffee cherry is 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, which entails a period of three days broken every 24 hours by washing - but unlike other washed processed coffees, Sigri's process follows this by total immersion in water for a further day, which creates a unique flavor profile.

All Sigri coffee is sun dried to further enhance flavor. Careful conditioning, hulling, grading and hand sorting follows. Sigri considers soil and water conservation as a priority, and, the plantation is bird and eco friendly. The plantation 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.

Mountain Water Process decaffeination was performed on a 72 bag lot in March 2013 by Descamex of Veracruz, Mexico. This coffee does an especially good job of flavor preservation while removing almost all of the caffeine with less than 1/3 of 1 percent remaining, this coffee is 99 2/3% caffeine free. A unique opportunity to try a top single origin, single plantation coffee in a decaffeinated form. We think you will find it to be among the best the decafs you have tasted.

Cup Characteristics: Unique flavor profile has smoky, hickory background note reminiscent of better Jamaica coffees. Layered, refined sweetness. This is an example of PNG coffee at its best.

Roasting Notes: We've been stopping this roast just before the start of second crack. We find this roast level has significant body but the notable hickory notes are present as is the acidity. The coffee is capable of being roasted slightly darker as well, into second crack. On a Behmor try P2 or P3.