Papua Coffee: The Last Frontier

Papua coffee — primarily from the Baliem Valley and the highlands around Wamena, Central Papua Province — is one of the world's least-documented specialty coffees, its obscurity a direct function of geography and infrastructure rather than quality. The Baliem Valley sits at 1,500–2,000 metres above sea level in the central highlands of Papua, accessible historically only by small aircraft (the Wamena airport, surrounded by mountain walls, requires visual flight rules and good weather). The Dani people of the Baliem Valley are the primary coffee growers; cultivation is traditional and non-industrial, using tools and methods largely unchanged since coffee introduction in the mid-20th century. The isolation that makes this coffee difficult to source is the same isolation that has protected it from the pressure to produce volume over quality.

Kopi Papua — Wamena Arabica from the Highlands of West Papua