Papua New Guinea Korgua Peaberry

The Korgua Estate resides in Nebilyer District, Central Highland region of Papua New Guinea. Now run by Brian Leahy, the farm was founded by Brian's father Dan and Uncle Mick, two well-known Australian explorers (their early films and photos being the basis for the Australian documentary, "First Contact"). Korgua Estate sits at about 1400 meters above sea level and is planted mostly in older Bourbon and Typica cultivars. It's a wet processed coffee, meaning the coffee cherry and much of the fruit are stripped from the seed using depulping machinery, then submerged in water tanks where it ferments overnight, breaking down the remaining outer layer of fruit. The physical grade of this coffee is impressive, and I couldn't find a single full quaker bean in the few hundred grams of coffee I roasted. This is a peaberry selection, meaning it consists of only the small, round beans, separated during dry milling on large vibrating tables. Peaberries occur in about 3% of every coffee tree's yield and are a result of one seed embryo dying, the cherry only forming a single, round-shaped seed instead of two. They are thought to often be denser, therefore, capable of producing higher level of sugar caramelization during roasting. I'm not sure this is always true, but this lot is no doubt very sweet and marked by fruited grace notes.