Oceania → Papua New Guinea → Highlands
🥤 DRINK
Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee
A clean, bright cup of single-origin Arabica grown in the cool Papua New Guinea highlands, brewed black.
Papua New Guinean · easy · serves 2
prep 5 min · cook 5 min
~0 cal · 0g protein · 0g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 0g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Coffee is Papua New Guinea's signature crop and, for the highlands, a way of life. Introduced in the early twentieth century and taking hold after seeds arrived from the famous Jamaican Blue Mountain , Arabica now grows in smallholder gardens across the Eastern Highlands around Goroka and Okapa, where cool mountain air and rich volcanic soil at altitude slow the cherries and concentrate their flavour.
Most of the crop is grown by village families in small "coffee gardens" rather than large estates, hand-picked, pulped, and sun-dried by the households themselves. The resulting cup is prized for being clean and bright, with a medium body and notes that run from cocoa to tropical fruit.
Brewed simply and drunk black, highland coffee is both the region's economic backbone and its daily ritual. To drink it is to taste the mist, the mountains, and the labour of the gardens that PNG's highland communities have tended for generations.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 2
- 3 tbsp freshly roasted highland Arabica coffee, medium-ground
- 2 cups hot water, just off the boil
- to taste raw sugar (optional)
Instructions
- 1Bring fresh water to just off the boil, around 200F, and let it settle for thirty seconds.✎ Chef’s noteSingle-origin highland Arabica is best treated gently: water off the boil, not fiercely boiling, keeps the bright, clean flavour the highlands are known for.
- 2Add the ground coffee to a pot, plunger, or filter and pour over the hot water.
- 3Let it brew for about four minutes, then press or strain out the grounds.
- 4Pour into cups and drink black, adding a little raw sugar only if you like.
Eastern Highlands coffee-garden tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Highlands. Papua New Guinea's Highlands cook the mumu earth oven, piling sweet potato (kaukau), greens, and pork over hot stones. In one of the world's most culturally diverse places, the garden and the pig are central.
🗺️
Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea's cuisine is as diverse as its 800 languages, built on sweet potato (kaukau), taro, sago, and the mumu earth oven. Fresh fish, pork, and highland greens reflect one of the world's most varied food cultures.
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Oceania. The staple crops here were carried on purpose. Lapita voyagers moving east from roughly three thousand years ago brought taro, yam, banana, breadfruit and coconut with them along with pigs and chickens, because most of the islands they settled had almost nothing edible growing on them. The earth oven travelled too, as umu, imu, hangi, lovo, mumu, motu and um.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Papua New Guinea
Highlands Mumu (Earth-Oven Vegetables)Sweet potato, greens, corn, and coconut milk steamed in banana leaves, an oven-friendly take on the mumu feast.
Roasted Kaukau with CoconutKaukau (sweet potato) roasted in the embers and eaten with fresh grated coconut, an everyday Papua New Guinean breakfast.
Saksak (Sago and Banana Dumplings)Pearls of sago and sweet banana set in coconut cream, the pudding that turns up at feasts across Papua New Guinea.
Browse all Papua New Guinea recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Papua New Guinea meal
Aigir (Tolai Coconut Chicken)Dinner
Dia (Sago and Banana in Coconut Cream)Dessert
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Kafé TimorTimor-Leste
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Egg Coffee (Cà Phê Trứng)Vietnam
Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee?
A clean, bright cup of single-origin Arabica grown in the cool Papua New Guinea highlands, brewed black.
Where does Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee come from?
Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee is a Papua New Guinean dish from Highlands, Papua New Guinea.
Can Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Papua New Guinea Highland Coffee take to make?
About 10 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 5 minutes cooking), serving 2.
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