Papua New Guinea Baroida Estate Natural

The Baroida estate, owned and run by the Colbran family since the 1960s, sits at the apex of the Lamari river valley and Mount Jabarra range.

The name ‘Baroida’ comes from the Baroida spirit, believed by locals to reside in a large rock that sits in one of the main rivers flowing through the estate. This particular rock, has stubbornly remained in the middle of the river for as long as anyone can remember, refusing to budge through the most severe floods.

One of the biggest challenges that the Colbrans faced when they first started out was finding a planting method that worked for the wet highlands of PNG where the average annual rainfall is 90 inches. This issue was solved by digging drainage ditches in between each row of coffee as well as ‘reading’ the coffee to see what it needed (i.e. certain fertilizers or whether the coffee was diseased). This knowledge continues to grow with time with experience. According to Nicol Colbran, the high quality of their coffee is, in part, due to ‘old fashioned’ systems that have been in place since the late 60’s.