Say: PNG coffee has intrinsic qualities

By JUNIOR UKAHA
PAPUA New Guinea coffee has “intrinsic qualities” which need to be harnessed to bring out its richness, a coffee cupping expert says.
Sam Say, the head cupper for the 2016 PNG Coffee Cupping Competition, said the quality of Papua New Guinea coffee needed to be identified, harnessed and put to the cup for people to drink.
Say, who owns and manages Bolaven Farms, a coffee processing company in Laos, said the cupping competition was good because it would expose the best Papua New Guinea coffee.
Say and seven international cuppers are in Lae to “taste” 128 different coffee samples produced in the country. They will announce the winner on Friday.
“We believe PNG coffee is good,” Say said.
“It has intrinsic quality that needs to be harnessed. But proper protocol needs to be followed and applied to produce quality coffee.
“Proper methods of quality control needed to be observed.”
Say said “consistency” in following proper method of coffee processing and roasting was the key to maintaining quality of the coffee.
Say, who attended the past three coffee expo and cupping competition in the country, said uniformity, consistency and applying correct methods were important to ensure PNG coffee remained competitive.
Say and his team would spend three days “cupping” about 128 different coffee samples from throughout the country.
The samples came from different parts of the country.
Say said they would consider flavor and acidity contained in the coffee samples.
“Our aim will be to look at all the coffee,” Say said.
“We will look at the attributes contained in the coffee.
“From time to time we will meet with all the farming groups involved and discuss some of our observations with them on how they can improve.”
Say said each of the judges would drink between 3-5 cup samples of different coffee flavours to assess their quality.