What is A Peaberry and why is it special?

So many of you as coffee drinkers, coffee lovers or coffee connoisseur must have come across, or would have been told by your barista about Peaberry coffee or must have heard the term Peaberry beans.

So first lets learn how and where it comes from – Yes definitely from coffee cherry or tree!

However what makes it so special- So a Peaberry (also called?caracol,?or "snail" in Spanish) is?a natural mutation of the coffee bean inside its cherry.?Normally coffee beans grow two to a fruit, flat against each other like halves of a peanut, but a funny thing happens in about 5% of the world's coffee, and a bean is born an only child.

And, perhaps just like that only child, the peaberry beans get kind of spoiled by not having to share with anybody else.?They tend to be smaller, denser, and, let's face it, just a little bit cuter than their flat cousins.?Fans think they taste noticeably sweeter and more flavorful than standard-issue beans; naysayers insist they can't tell the difference.

Also, since there's no way to tell from looking at the cherry itself whether there's a single- or double-header inside,?these little guys need to be hand-sorted after picking and processing to be sold separately.?As a result, in many cases the Peaberries are sold for roasting right alongside their normal counterparts. Occasionally, growers will hand-select the tiny mutants for special sale, sometimes at a premium—not only because of their taste, but also because of the amount of labor involved, as well as their relative rarity.

Peaberry coffee is often tied to specific regions like Tanzania and Kenya, but it can develop anywhere in the world from any variety of coffee. In Hawaii, Kona peaberry is the most well-known partly because Kona produces almost half of Hawaii’s coffee. As a result, Kona also produces most of Hawaii Island’s peaberries.

IS PEABERRY COFFEE SUPERIOR OR IS IT MARKETING?

This is a point of discussion as people will inevitably question peaberry coffee when it’s fetching $10 to $15 more per kg than its flat-bean friends. There’s a mix of opinions out there. Some pundits claim peaberries taste sweeter, lighter, and more flavorful. Some cannot taste a significant difference.

There are theories this flavor amplification is due to the cherry devoting all its energy towards its only child. Perhaps it’s the change in bean density, pore structure, or heat transfer within the roasting process? In roasting, peaberries have different requirements than regular beans of the same batch. Their shape requires different temperatures to ensure heat transfers into their center.