Goroka coffee taste test starts

THE Goroka coffee cupping competition kicked off yesterday with 11 international coffee experts taking taste tests of brews from some of the country’s best coffee beans.
They started tasting for coffee quality from beans pooled from co-operative groups around the country.
From the 57 coffee samples brought in from Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Oro, and Simbu provinces, the cuppers will pick the coffee bean with the highest tasting quality.
Jon Yogiyo, chairman of the PNG Coffee Growers Federation, welcomed the cuppers to the second international coffee cupping.
He said it would only be through cupping competition that the growers would know the strategies to apply to produce high quality coffee beans that would command good prices in the world market.
The competition was being held at the Dr Mark Solon auditorium at the University of Goroka and will end on Friday.
Willem Boot, one of the coffee cuppers, is coordinating the competition that was first held in 2005.