The key to the uniqueness and enjoyment of Papuan coffee is because the trees are planted at an altitude of 1,400 – 2,700 meters above sea level in the central mountains of West Papua, Indonesia. The coffee beans were first introduced by missionaries and the Dutch government.

“Coffee in the Baliem Valley, Wamena was first introduced by the Department of Landbouw op Nederlandscg Niew-Guinea in 1960,” said Hari Suroto, a researcher at the Papua Archaeology Center.

The head of the agricultural service at that time, Van Der Sluis deliberately chose the best and highest quality Arabica coffee seeds, which were imported directly from Papua New Guinea. This coffee is known as Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, whose parent plants come from Jamaica. In the Baliem Valley, this coffee was first planted in Kurima and Bokondini.

The best coffees from West Papua are planted in remote areas. As a result, transporting them during harvest is very expensive. They even have to use helicopters. One of them is Amungme coffee, because the harvest must be transported by helicopter, with a rental of US$3,000 per hour, making Amungme coffee expensive on the market. Here are West Papua coffees that are popular both domestically and internationally.

Amungme Coffee

Amungme coffee is produced in Timika Regency, Central Papua Province, West Papua. As the name implies, this coffee is cultivated by the Amungme tribe near the Tembagapura mine. Initially, Arabica typica coffee seeds were brought from Dogiyai and then cultivated by Amungme tribe farmers.

Amungme coffee is planted at an altitude of 2,500 meters above sea level in several villages, namely Oroanop, Tsinga, Hoya, and Banti Villages. Currently, more than 19 thousand hectares of land near the Tembagapura mine have been planted with Amungme coffee with an intercropping system. The number of coffee trees that have been planted has reached 13,603 trees with an average production of 606 kilograms or 0.6 tons of coffee beans (parchment) per year.

Amungme coffee trees are fertilized naturally with nitrogenous plants and compost and forest mulch materials. Amungme farmers carry out all coffee processing manually from harvesting to drying. After that, the roasting and grinding process will be carried out in a modern way in Timika.

The type of gold-bearing soil, climate and altitude of the Tembagapura region make Amungme coffee have a distinctive aroma. Amungme coffee has a full-bodied structure, a slightly sour taste, a very distinctive and strong sweet aroma and has an aftertaste in the form of a mocha flavor.

Bintang Mountains Coffee

The Bintang Mountains, Papua Pegunungan Province, West Papua, has special Arabica coffee. In general, Arabica coffee in Indonesia is planted at an altitude of 1,500 meters above sea level. In the Bintang Mountains, coffee is planted at an altitude of 1800 to 2000 meters above sea level.

At this altitude, the air is very cold with a temperature of 18 – 23 Celsius. The cold, foggy air temperature and low sunlight intensity make the coffee fruit ripen longer on the tree. This is what makes Pegunungan Bintang Arabica coffee different and of perfect quality. The long fruit ripening process causes nutrients to accumulate and the taste of the coffee tends to be more sour.

Arabica coffee began to be planted in the 1970s, Arabica typica coffee seeds were brought directly from Dogiyai by small plane by Dutch missionaries. Pegunungan Bintang Arabica coffee is planted in Lopkop, Sabin, Okbab District. Andaka, Okbibab District and Nangultil, Kiwirok District.

In addition to being planted organically, coffee beans are harvested manually, the harvest is also processed manually by human hands, not machines. The heat of the coffee processing machine is thought to reduce the quality of the coffee. Pegunungan Bintang coffee has a distinctive taste, namely citrus, berry, orange, fruity, sweet chocolate, sugar cane and peach.

Moanemani Coffee

Dogiyai Regency, Central Papua Province, West Papua, is known as the producer of the best Arabica coffee in Indonesia. Coffee from Dogiyai is better known as Moanemani coffee.

Moanemani is a type of Arabica coffee that is organically grown by traditional farmers of the Mee tribe, in Mapia District, Dogiyai Regency, Central Papua Province, West Papua. This coffee is very famous for coffee lovers in Europe and America. Moanemani coffee is grown by Mee Tribe farmers in gardens near forests, hillsides and their yards.

This coffee was initially introduced by missionaries in the 1960s. At that time, small planes after dropping logistics in the interior, when returning to Nabire City, the plane was empty.

The missionaries and pilots thought about what kind of high-value commodities could fill the empty plane and this commodity could improve the welfare of the interior population. So since then, coffee planting has been carried out. Because Dogiyai is located at an altitude of 1,000 to 2,000 meters above sea level, the Arabica type of coffee was chosen.

Historically, the Arabica coffee planted in Dogiyai, the seeds were imported from Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea coffee itself, the seeds are imported directly from Kingston, Jamaica. So the quality is not much different from Jamaica Blue Mountains coffee, the best premium Arabica coffee in the world.