Mostly standard coffee beans (some Peaberry beans may have snuck in!)

A friend from the Doka Estate (on Doka see our most recent post on coffee) visited Xandari yesterday to tell us more about the process of growing and preparing coffee from seedling to cup. We’ll go into what we learned in more detail in another post, but for now I wanted to share something interesting I learned about different types of coffee–specifically about the type of coffee called “Peaberry” (or caracoli).

Most people are used to the typical appearance of coffee beans: one round, relatively smooth, side, one flat side with a cleft down the middle. Here is a picture of the “standard” green coffee beans:

Standard green coffee beans (granas de oro, or “grains of gold,” in Costa Rican coffee-trade speak!)

Peaberry coffee is coffee that has only one of the two beans fertilized, so the two seeds cannot grow together and flatten each other. The result is a much rounder bean. See the picture below:

“Peaberry,” aka caracoli, beans

Peaberry beans do not necessarily brew a better or worse cup than other beans–instead, the difference is more in the flavor. Peaberry is typically roasted to a medium level (e.g., French roast), and possesses a distinctly strong, slightly acidic, but still smooth flavor (if deriving from a good coffee plant and roasted well). The flavor is sort of like what you’d expect from a coffee that concentrates the flavor of two beans into one. It’s not more bitter for that reason, but just more “coffee.”

Next time you see Peaberry coffee offered, try it and give us your thoughts–or stop by and see how good Doka Estate’s is!