Greenbeancoffee All Green Beans Myanmar-Shwe-Ywar-Ngan-Myazedi

The Danu Hill Tribe are long-time residents of the Ywar Ngan township which is primarily split between the Danu and Pa-o tribes, and counts members of the Myazedi amongst it. This is a very old community of people from the region in which the Myazedi inscription was discovered in the late 1800’s. Myanmars own Rosetta stone, it tells the story of Prince Yazakumar and King Kyansittha in four languages and enabled the deciphering of the written Pyu language. Hundreds of farmers work on small plots between one and five acres each, tending to the same land that their ancestors did before them. Since pesticides are forbidden in this township, its residents produce in an organic style, though it is not yet formally organic certified. 

Shwe Ywar Ngan was created by U Win Aung Kyaw, who has been roasting coffee since 1975. The ‘Godfather’ of the industry, he has been influential in setting up Shan as a coffee producing area. In 1998 he bought land for a farm and started
to process his own coffee. With the help of three coffee experts from FAO and government micro finance loans, to small holder producers. In 2001 the seeds were sown that would one day make this the biggest coffee producing area in the country. In 2003, Shwe Ywar Ngan distributed 200,000 seedlings to farmers to assist this drive. The vast majority of these were red catuai because this variety was identified as the most suitable for the region by the FAO. Coffee is grown under a variety of fruit and perennial shade trees. 

The way in which Shwe Ywar Ngan works enables the traceability of this lot to be controlled, and its cup profile favours its own selection. Cherries are hand-picked and then dry fermented for 18-24 hours before being washed, and spread on raised beds for 48 hours. After this, they are moved to patios until final moisture percentage has been reached. Once dried, the beans are then dry milled on site too, before being sent to the MCG facility in Pyin Oo Lwin for consolidation and shipping.