Peaberry Coffee – Great or Blah?
One of the coffees we offer at Hula Daddy is peaberry. We only harvest a 
limited amount, so we don’t always have it available.
limited amount, so we don’t always have it available.There are peaberry people and non-peaberry people. Peaberry people are passionate about peaberry coffee. They claim that the beans are sweeter and more flavorful.
We have had peaberry people get angry when we told them we are out of peaberry and won’t have any more for several months. It is so bad that this month we took peaberry off of our website menu. We now sell it, when we have it, at the store, by phone or by email.
Non-peaberry people don’t get what all of the fuss is about. They don’t think that peaberry is worth the added cost.
Ken David’s opinion at Coffee Review is:
“My experience suggests that peaberries always produce a somewhat different cup from normal beans from the same crop (in other words, present a distinct variation on the same sensory theme), but not different in a consistent enough way to support broad generalizations about quality.
More often than not peaberries produce a lighter-bodied, slightly more acidy, brighter cup than normal beans … but I have also cupped peaberries that seem to produce a heavier bodied cup than their regular mates.
I am not sure peaberry tastes better than normal beans from the same crop, but it does taste different. Typically, peaberry is more buoyant and more brightly acidy, more complex in the upper aromatic ranges of the profile but somewhat lighter in body, than comparable normally shaped beans.” Coffee Review, October 2003
Here are some facts about peaberry:
Peaberry is Not a Mutant
A peaberry is a bean that develops after its opposing bean failed. Since there was no opposing bean as it grew it folded over. However, it is still a normal coffee bean.
Peaberries are harder and more dense
Because there is only one bean developing in the coffee fruit, that bean gets all of the nutrition from the plant which results in a harder, denser bean. Peaberries roast slower than the other beans from the same harvest, so they should be sorted out.
Peaberries are Rare
Only about 5% of most coffee harvests are peaberries. There appears to be an inverse ratio between the amount of fertilizer the coffee tree gets and the number of peaberries. One saying is that peaberries are the poor farmer’s salvation. If the farmer can’t afford fertilizer then the extra money that she gets from peaberries will help her pay for fertilizer the next year. At Hula Daddy we get less than 1% peaberry.
Peaberries Have to be Hand Sorted.
When we send our coffee from dry milling, we ask the miller to sort out the peaberries. However, there are a lot of small beans and chips that sort out with the peaberry. So we have to hand sort each harvest to take out the peaberries. It takes me about two hours to sort out enough beans for one roast.
Peaberries Taste Different
There is a lot of controversy about the taste of peaberries. Some of the claims are that they roast better, they have less acid and the flavor is “stronger.” The claims may be just an illusion based on good marketing. However, at the very least, the fact that peaberries are hand sorted undoubtedly creates a better tasting cup of coffee.
I got the chance to have some peaberry coffee a on vacation to Hawaii about 5 years ago, and I really liked it! Sure, I hated that it cost so much more than my regular coffee but I would buy it again the next time I’m there. But seeing that it is hand sorted tells me why it costs more! I really does taste a bit different.
I was living in S.F., CA in the mid-90’s and if I went to Starbucks I’d get the Americano, the only thing they made that tasted good. But I saw Peaberry up on the board for the day’s coffee, so I said, why not?
Wow; huge mistake.
It was the worst dreck I’d ever tasted that claimed to be coffee. I had only taken a few sips of it and it cost $2, so I couldn’t just throw it away. So I decided to teach myself a good lesson, and drink it all down and keep reminding myself that this horrible stuff was called Peaberry. I wanted to never be able to forget how BAD this coffee was. I got through 2/3 of it and tossed the rest and swore I’d never make THAT mistake again.
So years go by, I move to Madison, WI. More years go by, and a new coffee shop opens up just off State Street up by the university library. I go there on opening day, get a cup of something, and then I notice along the wall they have a little table with a sign over it that says “Guess The Mystery Coffee And Win A Pound Of Coffee, Your Choice!”
I’m like, that’s cool, let’s give this a shot. They had a couple of those dispensers where you press down on the top, and they had a stack of dixie-cups. I pluck a cup off, put in just enough coffee that I can swirl it around to cool it down, and took a sip.
Holy Heavens Above, Peaberry!
Eight years later, and I remembered it like it was yesterday. I scribbled down my name, phone etc. and my guess. They called me up that evening, sounding VERY surprised, and I wound up getting a pound of Blue Mountain, which tasted wonderful.