Kokoda Coffee

Shyam Cariappa is the founder and driving force behind Kokoda Coffee. He was born in Calcutta, India. His family is from Coorg, a small district within the state of Karnataka. Traditionally, the Coorgs are a warrior people who, when not fighting, employed themselves in agriculture. Shyam's family farm in Coorg has been growing crops such as rice, pepper and coffee for many generations.

Shyam has been around coffee all his life. From running coffee plantations to building coffee processing factories in Papua New Guinea, Shyam has literally lived the entire coffee production process. He was contracted out of India by the government of Papua New Guinea in 1982. He was to go to one of the remotest parts of Papua New Guinea and setup a coffee processing factory. It was there that his love of Papua New Guinean coffee began.

In 1987 he and his young family moved to a very remote part of Papua New Guinea, to what was little more than a settlement, called Aseki. Aseki was so remote that the only reliable way in was by aircraft. Aseki is about 5000ft above sea level, set in a plateau in the Morobe Highlands of Papua New Guinea. There was only one road in and out of the town, with the nearest city, Lae about 5 hours drive away. As most of the time the main road was either flooded, or impassable from landslides caused by the frequent and violent earthquakes, in case of emergencies they had to call in an aircraft to pick them up from the local airstrip. The airstrip was unusable most of the time because of the heavy fog and torrential rain, experienced daily in Aseki. The airstrip was such a challenge to land on that, until he left in 1992, the Australian Army used the airstrip to practice their emergency short field landings with their troop carrying aircraft.

Aseki's local inhabitants are from a tribe called the Kukukukus, now called the Angans. They are one of the fiercest and most feared tribes in Papua New Guinea, with a history of violence against their neighbors and cannibalism. One of the main reasons why there wasn't a factory already built in the area to process the exquisite coffee grown there, was the fact that no one was brave enough to go there.

In late 1987, Shyam organised to have this factory Certified Organic by NASAA, the most sought after organic certification body in the Southern Hemisphere. Kokoda Organic comes from this factory. So when we say that we know where our coffee comes from, you can know for a fact that it's true.

Shyam brings over 120 years of experience to every cup and box of Kokoda coffee. His mantra is that" Life is too short to drink bad coffee".
If coffee is the first thing that you drink every day, make sure that you drink the best - Kokoda Coffee.

Shyam enjoys his Kokoda Coffee as a long black with two sugars. As he says, "Any extra sweetness this world can offer is always appreciated".

Shyam outside our office in Brisbane office enjoying a Kokoda Coffee