Earth Tones and Papua New Guinea Pataro Gasaki
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to be a coffee finalist judge for the annual Good Food Awards. It’s one of my favorite events to volunteer for, where I get to taste and evaluate some incredible coffees and nerd out with a bunch of other coffee professionals who also love to do the same. Hundreds of roasteries throughout the US submit a coffee, and only a few dozen become finalists. I was in the last and final judging pod of the day, where I evaluated six coffees with four other judges. There were some fun ones in the bunch: one that tasted like berries and aromatic florals, one like natural wine, and another like a Werther’s chewy caramel. But the one that caught my attention the most was a coffee with notes of cedar wood, white tea, and brown sugar.* I never used to be a fan of earthy coffees, but over the years, I’ve grown to appreciate their sweet and savory profile. And it made me even happier to know that a rustic coffee can still rank in an intense competition. Afterall, a “good coffee” doesn’t necessarily have to be the most expressive. Oftentimes, the ones that speak to us the most are the ones that give us comfort on a daily basis.
Perhaps another reason why that coffee was so memorable to me was because it reminded me of our most recent coffee from Papua New Guinea Pataro Gasaki. At first sip, this coffee shines with acidity reminiscent of citrus fruits before it mellows into sweet, jammy, bready notes like apple crisp and butterscotch. But when you sit back, take a sip and let the coffee settle, gentle notes of cedar wood and brown spices can make its way through. It’s a pleasant surprise that reminds me of being in the mountain forest in the morning, where I’m wearing a jacket to keep myself warm, enjoying the smell of crisp air and damp earth, and taking refuge from city noises.
This coffee comes from the Eastern Highland Province, where Pataro Gasaki gathers coffee from a specific group of farmers and brings them to New Guinea Highland Coffee Exports. NGHCE cups each lot that is brought to them, no matter how small, and pays higher premiums to those who bring coffees of higher qualities. Here, where most coffee comes from smallholder farmers located in remote areas with few roads connecting communities, middlemen like Pataro Gasaki often provide the only practical opportunity for coffees to reach the market. Pataro Gasaki’s coffee is a part of the Limited Edition Series by NGHCE, a program that highlights specialty coffee lots.
If you’re looking for a coffee that can give you comfort and maybe a little escape into the woods, this special Oceania coffee might be a perfect fit for you.
*As judges, we didn’t rank the coffees by picking our personal favorites. Instead, each coffee is evaluated for its individual attributes using a scoring system. Coffees with the highest scores will be announced as the winners.
