FOR THE LOVE OF PEABERRY

Double Your Flavor With These Delicacies

THE ORDER COMES to roast 20 pounds of Peaberry. Your mind shifts gears. The Peaberries drop into the hopper the same as regular beans, although the sound is somewhat different, like the pinging of small ball bearings. You roast slowly, keeping an even temperature. With Peaberries, you have to pay attention to the roasting process—being a smaller bean, things can happen quickly. At the right time, out comes the roasted Peaberry. It looks and smells absolutely wonderful. Twenty pounds in the cooling tray can be mesmerizing.
     Peaberries—coffee beans that grow alone in a single cherry—were once considered a defect, a deformed bean. Now, these small round beans are highly prized, and are sometimes even called the “caviar” of coffee.
     So, which is the Peaberry? Defect or delicacy?
     It depends on whom you ask. For a long time, most roasters didn’t know much about this “black sheep” of the coffee family, just that it looked different than a regular bean—small and round instead of long and irregular. Growers were asked to sort Peaberries out by hand, just as they would any other defect.
     Then, roasters began to notice that Peaberry’s single bean had a very concentrated aroma and flavor. Intuitively, it made sense—if the tree was growing just one bean per cherry instead of two, then wouldn’t that bean get twice as much flavor, aroma and acidity? Intrigued, roasters began to ask farmers to separate the Peaberry from the coffee—not as a defect this time, but as a special coffee in its own right.
     After a few years, however, the farmers were less willing to sort the Peaberries out. As the farmers of Guatemala Antigua La Tacita said to us one day, after two years of this practice, “We can no longer sort the Peaberry out for you; it’s significantly affecting the flavor of our coffee.” When the Peaberry was taken out, cuppers found that it reduced the cup profile and the cupping scores of the regular coffee began to drop.
     In talking about Peaberry, Paul Leighton, president of Cape Horn Coffee, Inc., says, “The Peaberry [in Brazil] is called “moka,” and like in other producing countries, moka or Peaberry is separated and receives a small premium. My grandmother worked, when very young, in a general goods store. She recalled that all the coffee they sold was Peaberry and from different countries. She said it was easier to get a good frying pan roast with Peaberry. This was the later years of the 19th century.”
     Thus, the Peaberry has come full circle. From its humble beginnings as the “runt of the litter,” it has now grown into something of a celebrity in the cup.

We now know that Peaberries are, in some ways, an actual defect. While most coffee cherries produce two beans, an estimated two to 10 percent of cherries contain only one bean. These are the Peaberries. While no one knows yet exactly why a coffee tree produces Peaberries, we do know that they occur in all varietals, but occur more often in certain countries, such as Africa, although they are also found in Asia, Hawaii and South America. They also typically develop in cherries that are located on the tips of the branches.
     By comparing a single Peaberry bean with a typical regular bean (Picture 1), it’s easy to see the physical differences. Unlike the traditional coffee bean, which is flat, varied in size and often at different grades, the Peaberry is round, uniform, smaller and often clean.
     The internal differences are more difficult to see. The theory behind the great flavor and aroma of Peaberry beans is that this single bean receives all the nutrients as opposed to being divided into two beans. All the necessary minerals and oils that make a great coffee are now concentrated into a single oval bean. Peaberries have been found to have higher oil content than regular coffee beans, as well as an exceptional blend of essential minerals.
     So the same amount of nutrients, oils and minerals that go into a dual pod now go into the single pod, giving it optimum flavor. Perhaps the higher density found in Peaberries also add to this flavor. “When the coffee berry has only one child, it spoils it with extra sweetness and acidity,” Leighton says. “For this reason, the Peaberry is prized.”
     Although no research has been done that looks specifically at the Peaberry’s soluble content, this two-into-one is believed to be the reason that Peaberries often have a stronger flavor and aroma, and a higher level of acidity than regular beans.
     “I have not seen any information specific to Peaberry, but from my personal view, I would expect more soluble content in the Peaberry as opposed to a normal bean,” says Joseph Rivera, director of science and technology for the Specialty Coffee Association of America. “Why? Well, what was meant for two beans is now concentrated in one. Which is actually what you see by the relative increase in acidity that is commonly found in Peaberries.”
     There is even some speculation over whether the Peaberry is a natural phenomena from the unusual dual sex aspect of coffee or just a result of wind, hard rain, man or mechanical devices disturbing a flower and causing it to lose a pistol, thus reducing its reproductive potential. This latter theory is supported by the fact that the Peaberry is found more commonly on the outside of the coffee tree branches and not in the more protected area of the inner branch.

Roasting Peaberries

Is there any difference in the roasting process between the Peaberry and its counterpart, the flat bean? To answer this question, we roasted seven, one-pound samples, altering the temperature and time for each batch. We started each batch at a drop of 350° F, using our one-pound San Franciscan gas roaster. With as many consistent variables as possible, we set out to roast. Table 1 shows our plan, weight loss and temperatures.

     Table 1 shows that the weight loss for the regular beans came to an average of 18 percent, and 16 percent for the Peaberry beans (sample size for both was 15 batches).
     In theory, the Peaberry’s lower weight loss also means you have lost less organic compounds in addition to water weight, hence the idea that more compounds that contribute to flavor might remain.
     We also found that the Peaberries roasted quickly; the beans seemed to capture and transmit heat faster and more efficiently than regular beans.
     During roasting, the Peaberry changed appearance within the normal parameters of roasted coffee (Picture 2).

The flat bean also changed appearance, within the normal parameters of roasted coffee (Picture 3).

Cupping

After roasting, we cupped the Peaberry, with interesting results, as outlined in Table 2.

     What showed up with varying roast degrees was typically a bright and crisp flavor in the lighter roasts and a smoothness, with chocolate notes, in the medium color. The brightness seems to show itself particularly with the faster roast time (just after second crack), then smooth out further into the roast. Once past the medium color, we got a definite baked flavor (rubbery, in the cupper’s note below). While the faster roast showed some bright acidity, the slow roast seemed to accentuate some harshness.
     As you can see, the light (86.3 and 86 average scores) and medium (87.3 average score) came out winners. Both roast levels cupped well, so it would be a personal preference, based on whether you were aiming for a nutty acidity or for smoother chocolate tones.
     After roasting and cupping these unusual beans, it’s easy to see why the Peaberry has made its long trek from defect to delicacy. Where else can you find all of the goodness of a coffee cherry packed into one bean? With double the flavor, intensity and aroma, Peaberries, when properly roasted, can be a great choice for blends or stand-alone coffees.

PAUL ALLEN is roastmaster for Caravan Coffee in Newberg, Ore.
He enjoys a good Flatwhite (a New Zealand no-foam-just-crema latte style),
a game of Catan and time with his wife, Rachel, and their two children Reed and Olivia.