Mong

Producers: Mong Coffee
Origin: Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea
Elevation: 1850 MASL
Variety: Blue Mountain, Mundo Novo, Caturra
Process: Washed
Roast Level: Light
Importer: Crop To Cup
Flavor Notes: Pear, Cola, Lemongrass

Keeping the new origins a flowin' with this beautiful drop from the Mong Coffee group out of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea.  This is Enjoy's first release from PNG and it's everything that we look for in terms of a washed cup profile from the region.  Over the many many years in coffee, we always keep an eye out for an offering like this from PNG, and we're thrilled to be able to bring one on to the roaster from the homies of Crop To Cup.

As told by CTC:
Mong Coffee, led by Rexson Raguni (Rex) in Papua New Guinea’s Western Highlands, is one of the clearest examples of what becomes possible when process control meets long-term vision. In 2024 Rex became the first in PNG to implement slow drying at exportable scale, extending dry times to stabilize moisture, guard against fade, and enhance cup quality.

Despite challenges in a cash-driven economy, the results proved that patience pays: slow-dried lots achieved higher scores, and with them higher prices. His consistency has since become a model for neighboring leaders, demonstrating that premiums tied to cup quality are real and achievable. For 2025, Rex has expanded shaded drying space and added natural processing to his repertoire, alongside larger volumes of slow-dried washed. Early deliveries suggest ~200 bags of slow-dried washed and ~50–70 bags of naturals this season. At Mong Coffee’s drying patios you’ll find raised beds, shade nets, and Rex himself—always with a temperature gun in hand—closely monitoring every stage.

Coffee in Papua New Guinea is concentrated in the Highlands, where decent altitude, volcanic soils, and rainfall create the foundation for some of the most complex cup profiles in the Pacific. More than 80% of PNG’s coffee comes from smallholders with tiny plots and very low yields. Most pulp by hand, ferment in bags or buckets, and dry on tarps before selling parchment to local buyers. From there, coffee moves through layers of intermediaries before reaching exporters in towns like Goroka and Hagen. Specialty quality emerges through centralized collection: estates with their own mills, or washing stations that send trucks into remote valleys to buy cherry and enforce standards on ripeness, fermentation, and drying.

Attempts at farmer organization have met both promise and difficulty. PNG is home to hundreds of languages, and cooperation rarely extended beyond a single village or clan. Many Highlands communities only connected to markets after the Highlands Highway opened in the 1950s—and to this day, coffee still moves by prop plane from bush airstrips where roads do not reach. Yet examples like AAK Cooperative, which unites dozens of otherwise isolated “house-line” communities, show what coordinated structure can achieve. Alongside this, a new generation of private collectors are offering smallholders more direct outlets to buyers and creating traceable lots that sidestep the traditional middleman system.

PNG’s potential remains immense but fragile. Each harvest is shaped by whether groups maintain cohesion, whether washing stations stay active, and whether parchment makes it past intermediaries without being sold elsewhere. The country offers extraordinary coffees and cultural diversity, but turning that potential into reliable, traceable supply remains as challenging as it is rewarding.

This lot of Mong Coffee is such a cool cup profile with a complexity that is so unique to this region. There is a bright and pointed acidity that is balanced out by a subtle herbaceous quality.  In the cup, we get an awesome pear-like malic acidity which is complimented by a cola-like sweetness.  As the cup cools, a floral and slightly herby note of lemongrass creeps up really adding to the uniqueness of this slow dried lot.