Peaberry Coffee: What is it? And why so unique? 7 Facts
1. The inside of a regular coffee cherry, contains two seeds, with a rounded outside and flat inside. It is the seeds of the coffee cherry that are removed, processed, and roasted.
2. Peaberries are the ‘defect’ seeds that don’t fertilise into two and one single seed develops. With this extra space in the coffee cherry, a larger rounder seed grows called a Peaberry.
3. Peaberries are generally uniform in both size and shape, and as such, they roast very evenly and are believed to produce a superior flavour.
4. Peaberries are estimated to make up to around 5–10% of a harvest.
5. Not all one-seeded cherries are classified as a peaberry however. It is possible for only one regular, flat-sided seed to develop inside a cherry.
6. Peaberries are usually identified, sorted and separated during the post-harvest process. They’ll either be separated by size manually using a sieve or, in the case of bigger processing farms, sophisticated machinery which quickly sorts by weight and size.
7. Due to their unique size and density Peaberries need to be roasted slightly differently to traditional ‘flat beans’ as heat is transferred through the bean differently.
We currently have Peaberry Coffee from Australia, Jamaica, Rwanda, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania. And stay tuned for a new Peaberry coffee coming from Kenya.
Why David loves roasting these beans: “Being round it lends itself to rolling around the roaster really well and roasts evenly with a beautiful colour.”