G'day! G'day!

This weeks feature coffee on press up here on Main Street: Tanzania Peaberry-Northern Burka Estate, as roasted by Dark City Coffee Company. The general consensus? A well balanced cup with notes of apples and chocolate.

Wondering what Peaberries are?
Peaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean. Normally the fruit of the coffee plant develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry, but sometimes only one of the two seeds gets fertilized so there is nothing to flatten it. This oval (or pea-shaped) bean is known as Peaberry. Typically around 5% of all coffee beans harvested are of this form.

Peaberry beans roast differently from the corresponding flat berry beans, hence to ensure an even roast, in high grade coffee, peaberry beans are separated.

Peaberry beans are widely reputed to roast better than flat berries, being said to roast more evenly, because of their rounder shape minimizes sharp edges, and rolls about the roasting chamber more easily. However, some sources claim that the effect is minor, and that the major benefit of peaberry beans is that they have been carefully selected, which is essential for optimal quality, regardless of bean shape.

The only case that can be made for a real “Peaberry difference” that affects the cup is the way a peaberry tends to behave in the roast chamber. In a fluid bed roaster it will “roll” easier and rotate better in the hot air stream. In a drum or air roaster, it will transfer heat a little better from the exterior to interior of the bean due to the fact that peaberries usually have higher bean density. But these factors have a minor influence on the final cup results.

Thank you Wikipedia.