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Most harvest headlines will harp on the highs, and for good reason. This season in PNG certainly does have specific producer stories that we’ll spotlight, with some strong microlots showing at the PSS stage. But really, our core takeaway this year is that the baseline quality—the “floor,” rather than the ceiling—is meaningfully elevated, in a way that feels like well-earned gratification for years of effort and calibration up and down the supply chain. At full container levels, Highlands blends are comfortably exceeding the 85 point mark, while promising newer partners like Peter Seed, Mong, and some of the former cluster groups from the once-mighty AAK Cooperative have delivered similar quality.
Though typically less flashy than other places—at least by menu optics—our work in PNG is among the more compelling case studies for importing/logistics/relationship management nerds (affectionate term, of course). When it comes to heightened baseline quality, the simplest and truest explanation is that we’ve continued to tighten calibration with our milling and export partners, and this year that calibration is broad enough to meaningfully shift results. For smaller, newer relationships with the private collectors we dedicated much of last year’s missive to introducing (refresher here), sustained emphasis on drying plus meticulous review of last year’s results led to more of the same elevated standard, scaled up in some places, and subtly improved in others. And while these effects are in the aggregate, this year’s quality also owes some credit to the simple but sharp decision to visit with partners very early in the harvest (May), with enough time to incorporate early season feedback for the bulk of their expected volume.
We’ve linked it already, but we’ll allude to it even more explicitly here: last year’s PNG update was entitled Slow Work, Steady Gains, and in addition to a broader zoomed out view of this country’s coffee context, we dug into the ways in which work here is even more incremental than elsewhere. This year, the sum of so many small efforts yielded the highest quality bar at the macro level that we have ever experienced. Thankfully, hunting for an explanation yielded no singular revelation, as can sometimes be the case for the good or the bad in agriculture. Instead, the conversations we’ve been conducting this Fall, as expectation-exceeding PSS grace the cupping tables, have affirmed a most basic tenet of sound, sustainable business: our partners are getting to know us better.
For very large blends sourced from myriad clusters of producers throughout a region, consistency across the constituent parts is key. It certainly does not happen automatically. There is no way to make this happen aside from trial and error, acceptance and rejection, encouragement and redirection, year after year. Staying a squeaky wheel in terms of quality, we continue to differentiate ourselves, and our partners calibrate accordingly. For seasons when no visit is made, this work is inherently concentrated farther downstream, at the milling and consolidation/export levels, but visits (which we aim for every other year) allow us to engage directly with cuppers, collectors, milling staff, field agents, and farmers themselves. Though we at Crop to Cup have been working in PNG for a long time, it is still a comparatively underexposed landscape to specialty, so conveying and reiterating our own expectations is key.
Across all of our supply chains, we have long worked toward expanding the scope and improving the usefulness of post-arrival feedback that we deliver from afar. See below for one example (anonymized to respect confidentiality):
The paper trail is critical, for accountability as well as for reference when opportunities to improve emerge in subsequent seasons. Beyond the transaction, we regard this communication as essential for holding up our end of the bargain, remaining good partners. And finally, this structure provides a visible anchor for discussion and recalibration during visits.
There is no perfect time to visit a country. Only by being there from pre-picking till the last boxes are boat-bound (or having a de facto team member do so) can you possibly cover every base. Of course, trusted partnerships are prerequisites for this sort of work, but trust without sustained verification is simply foolish. Even in the best of times, supply chains need strategic check-ins, and there isn’t one foolproof milestone to schedule them around. With that in mind, Taylor opted this season for a visit very early in the harvest. The downside here is that there’s hardly anything to taste, so critical purchase decision-making is deferred to DHL, down the line. In some environments, competitive purchasing renders early season trips insufficient, but in PNG, where season-to-season continuity is more precarious than rival buyers, the idea was that this would enable course-correction as needed.
As it turned out, payoff for this premise came through one of our most promising and highest visibility partners of the past three seasons: Peter Seed. Despite a strong showing last year, his place was in rough shape in May. Last year’s raised beds had not withstood the passing season gracefully, meaning that early pickings were drying on tarps, and the conditions of the washing infrastructure were similarly worrisome. What was available to cup delivered no pleasant surprises, and so the directives were clear: rebuild proper raised beds, slow down the drying accordingly, bring washing stations back up to standard — and fast. Beyond the visit, Taylor and Peter remained in touch via Whatsapp, and as the season moved along, the work thankfully kept pace with the uptick in volume. At PSS stage, our team had his washed lot at 86 points, tasting like black tea and honey.
The turnaround is an invigorating story, but at Mong Coffee in the western Highlands, there was no delayed gratification—this operation was looking stellar, and the PSS delivered affirming results in the 85+ range for slow-dried lots, tasting like hazelnut, brown sugar, and dark chocolate. Though our quality benchmark represents only a small portion of Mong’s total output, seeing the requisite steps in full swing was highly encouraging. From syphon density sorting to careful temperature monitoring throughout drying, the pieces are in play here and we hope to drive sustained increases in coffee of this caliber, year after year.
Finally, early/non-cupping-oriented trips afford a bit more bandwidth to pure relationship upkeep. The Waingar Cluster, formerly of the AAK Cooperative, is a perfect example of this. Though this community once moved hundreds of bags/year through the larger coop, their output is now much lower—a few dozen. Over the years, Crop to Cup facilitated a storage warehouse and wet mill equipment (necessary during peak production era), but most importantly was the establishment of a fresh water system that is still utilized by over 1,000 people in Waingar and the surrounding villages. Though their coffees are no longer guaranteed for microlot separations each season, we remain committed to this relationship, and know how much it means when their community is represented and named on a coffee bag.
In addition to reconnecting with old friends, Taylor was able to meet with several new-to-us producers and collectors, some just tapping into specialty for the first time. In this context, we start with the basics, but the upside is huge. Once again, there’s real payoff for being there so early, as the simplest suggestions have enough time to meaningfully influence the season’s outcomes. Though these individuals and their groups don’t typically make it to the Offer sheet by name in year one, three new collectors (Seneko, Luoka, Maesasa) contributed to one of the strongest Eastern Highlands Select blends that we’ve had in years. One producer from Seneko, Nicky Emopa, made the long trek to visit with Taylor and to discuss how he could elevate his and his village’s output to specialty microlot down the line. Engaging with this level of motivation on the individual and community level clearly has high potential, and even if the highest aspirations don’t come to fruition right away, it’s clear that this mentality informs a broadly rising tide of quality throughout the Highlands.
This is a standout PNG season thanks to the deceptively daunting pairing of calibration across many seasons plus bandwidth for course correction within just one. Though we know quite well that strong PSS does not automatically mean proportionally strong arrivals, they are certainly a prerequisite, and making it to this point is very encouraging. When reflecting on why this season’s baseline quality is so high, the anticlimax of the explanation is actually as encouraging as it could be—little by little, we and our partners have earned this, a notion reinforced on the micro-scale by turnarounds between May and September.
As always, most of this season’s Highlands Select blends were contracted early to longtime buyers, but there is still plenty available from Peter Seed and Mong, as well as more of the later shipping Eastern Highlands blends, up to the full container level if actioned soon enough. It is not hyperbole to emphasize that these really offer some of the best value you can possibly find, hovering around the 85 point mark, with slim differentials at the FCL level.
Most of these coffees will land plus/minus a few weeks of the new year. If you’d like to see some PNG on your menu for 2027—get in touch now.
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