Oast House, Papua New Guinea

We loved it, you loved it. Now, it's back for another rodeo in our hoppers.  

Those of you long in the proverbial Garage tooth might remember this little fruity explosion from days yore and we sure as hell weren’t passing up the opportunity to serve up the Arufa AX once again.

The Arufa AX is one of those coffees that has something to give however you choose to brew it, but its electrifying acidity and bold sugar-sweet body have earned it its rightful place as the latest iteration of our Oast House Single Origin Espresso.  

Expect the explosive burst-in-your-mouth juicy clarity of candied grapes underpinned by a lingering jammy marmalade citrus and brown sugar base. A combination that would make an on the whole mildly confusing, yet oddly beguiling breakfast. I like to think Paddington would be a fan. 

Located on the highland plateau of the Sarawaget Mountain Range in Papua New Guinea’s Jiwaka Province, the Arufa AX benefits from the region’s lush, nutrient-rich volcanic soil and unique microclimate that gives the beans their unique profile.  

Coffee first arrived in Papua New Guinea in the late 19th Century for growth on plantations in the then German colony and many of the small holdings in Arufa once made up these estates before they were split up and redistributed to native Papuans after independence from Australia in 1975. Coffee is now a dominant industry in PNG and accounts for the employment of over half the nation’s population.  

The coffee trees in Arufa are inter-planted with other crops such as plantain, yams, and bananas. This not only provides produce for personal consumption but also offers much needed shade and decaying plant matter that both aid in the enrichment and longevity of both plants and soil.  

Cherries are hand-picked by the smallholders before being brought to Monpi Coffee’s processing centre at Kindeng, where the very best cherries are selected and sundried for a month. The cherry pulp is then removed from the beans in a process known as “hulling” at Monpi’s other facility in Kagamuga before being transported on to Goroka where the beans are prepared for export to our partners at Mecanta.