Description
All coffee bearing the Carpenter Estate name is grown at over 5000 feet elevation. All of their Estates 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.
These are washed processed Arabica coffees. Quality Control begins in the field; Cherry coffee 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.
Tasting Notes:
Silky smooth and clean tasting, fuller bodied with a creamy mouthfeel. Lower acidity chocolaty cup with a sweet edge. We liked it best from a medium to dark roast, but with a little longer setup, light roast fans can find joy with these beans. Definitely a chocolaty cup profile with some cool nutty and herbal/spice accents. If you roast before 2nd crack, which is preferred, one can balance in some melon and fruit acidity into the mix which is a big plus to the depth of flavor. Cup starts sweet at lighter roasts but will turn semi-sweet as you pushing into medium or dark roasts.
Roasting Notes:
Good almost anywhere – I would still avoid real light roasts for you will find a bit of raw acidity and underdeveloped darker tones. City plus to as dark as you want to go. To see it shine, keep it before 2nd crack. Dark roasts will impress dark roast fans but will burn out many tones that make this cup pretty stellar. Medium chaff levels and even roasting keeps it an easy to roast bean. Peaberries in air roasters can not move quite as well, might be good to slightly reduce batch size.
The quick story of Papua New Guinea Sigri/Bunum-Wo/Kindeng: one can clear up a lot of information when you get on the ground somewhere. What I and many others thought was a farm “Sigri Estate” is really just a section of the larger Carpenter Estates – Sigri being only one of the areas of the estate (easily the most famous). The other two are Bunum Wo and Kindeng. Each of the three produces a stellar cup with slightly different tastes; PNG being full of microclimates really puts a different spin on each section. Each one is like its own village situated right next to each other, with separate wet mills, drying fields, nurseries, living quarters, and schools, for each of the three sections. They do share a couple facilities (dry mill, bagging, trucking to port) and many staff.
Each of the three sections of Carpenter Estates has separate fields for different strains and top-notch agronomists to grow the best beans. Most of these folks have coffee in their blood. Being a part of the coffee here is a birthright for them (seen as a cradle to the grave philosophy). Great pride all around.
Read More:
Papua New Guinea “The Wild West Of Coffee Production”
Papua New Guinea Carpenter Estates Coffee
These Carpenter Estate coffees are gems – nothing like your traditional PNG coffees. Almost a 0 defect screen with immaculate processing. You can just look at the beans and see the care and time that went into them.
A fermentation process follows, for a period of three days broken every 24 hours by washing – but unlike most other brands, the Carpenter process follows this by total immersion in water for a further day, which creates a superior coffee. Careful conditioning of 21 days is followed by hulling, grading, color sorting and finally hand sorting. This combined with rigorous quality control before packing produces the finest green bean for which Carpenter is renowned.
All grades are then continuously sample-roasted and liquored by experts. This provides a final check on the quality of the green bean product, and is a practice unique in Papua New Guinea.
Quality Control At Carpenter Estates:
Non-edited Wet Mill Running At Carpenter Estates:
Elementary School At Sigri Estate:
djlevin (verified owner) –
If you like Southeast Asian coffees, this was a great example. Medium minus acidity, milk chocolate, full body and good crema. Great to play with darker roasts. Smoky on second crack, but my favorite is just after first crack, sweet chocolate and still a nice full body! One of my favorites. Hope Burman acquires more next crop.
Aaron Rupp (verified owner) –
This is a well balanced, complex cup of coffee.
Robert Warren (verified owner) –
I’ve been settled on this coffee for a while now, purchased 10 pounds then another 10 pounds. My preferred roast with this is just into second crack.
Kelly –
Fast delivery! Beans were very uniform with almost no culls. Roasted to just below city+ and it was an easy roast to do. Waiting patiently for it to out gas, it looks and smells delicious!
Kelly Van Arsdel (verified owner) –
This coffee is just incredible! Roasted to about 45 seconds after 2nd crack when oils are just apparent. Still retains some nice acidity while accruing a great smoky, roasted profile that has amazing depth to it. Lighter roasts have a bit much acidity for my taste. A rest of 12 hours is just fine. My new favorite coffee!
Karen L DuCharme (verified owner) –
My favorite go to for everyday drinking. Discovered to keep it just a tad over 1st crack; otherwise tastes burnt in my opinion.
paddynt (verified owner) –
By far my favorite daily drinker. Just past first crack.
Mike Norman –
This coffee is delicious. Drop time was 12:10 (4 seconds after second crack) @ 389F. Absolutely fantastic. I love it!
Tom (verified owner) –
Excellent after first crack is finished through just before 2c. I like to keep BT below 430.
Dean Hedin –
My second DIY roast. Light medium roast. Mild chocolaty, strong “melon fruity”.
Jarrod heath Wilson (verified owner) –
I ordered and tried many of Burmans coffee ordering 30+ pounds at a time. I do not like acidity at all! I always keep coming back to this one time and time again. I roast a bit past the first crack and its always perfect!! I make a pot of French press and this coffee never disappoints me!
Alice Sanvito (verified owner) –
I just roasted this for the first time and liked it a lot. First time trying a PNG coffee, had no idea what to expect. I usually mix Costa Rican and Yirgacheffe together. Medium roast. No odd flavors, just a nice coffee. I would buy it again.
Robert H. (verified owner) –
This PNG PB has been our MVP of 2024. It’s a killer buttery smooth coffee for any brew method. I purchased 60 lbs in March and went through the last of it in December. It lost some of the initial flavor “pop” that it had in the beginning, but still a good all around coffee.