Waitrose Kwonggi Mountain

I've learned more geography in the last year or two of writing about coffee than I ever did at school. The Kwonggi Mountain Range is, according to the packet, located in Papua New Guinea.

The only problem with this new knowledge is that I'm not convinced it's true. There's no mention of any Kwonggi Mountain Range – or even a single mountain by that name – in Wikipedia's list of Highest Mountains of New Guinea; as far as I can make out, Kwongi (with one g) is a small town in the Eastern Highlands, in the Bismark Mountain Range.

Given that Waitrose seem to be unique in selling a "Kwonggi Mountain" coffee, one could be forgiven for suspecting that their marketing department has made it up a little.

Anyway, this is their Kwonggi Mountain coffee. The grounds are rich and sweet with hints of apricot, and slightly overdone toast.

Brewed, the fruit is subdued but still present, and the toasted note become more like darkly caramelised sugar.

The taste isn't as sweet as the nose suggested, but it has a nice, slightly citrus fruit flavour with a decent body and a generous but not overwhelming bitterness which feeds into a dry finish.

It's a curious coffee, the flavours letting it down but the body lifting it back up – it's definitely one that grows on you as you drink it, and I think deserves three stars.

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This review was originally published 14th October, 2013. It was last updated 1st June, 2023.