Myth versus Fact

What do you know about Peaberry coffee? You most certainly know it is an expensive, premium coffee. Perhaps you even know that it is rare, occurring only in 4% to 8% of all coffee grown around the world. However, what you don’t know about Peaberry coffee might just turn your cup of coffee cold.

Are any of these Hawaiian Coffee Cherry's holding a Peaberry?

First and foremost, Peaberry coffee is one bean, not two. Normally, a coffee cherry grows two halves of a bean inside the berry, which we consider two beans. These two beans, which look surprisingly like a a peanut, are normal coffee beans. Sometimes though, the coffee cherry produces a single bean. The single bean is Peaberry coffee, and is small and round.

So this single bean is special, right? Yes and No. Biologically, yes, it is special since it is an anomaly of nature. How about taste? That answer isn’t quite so black and white. While some coffee aficionado’s have argued that Peaberry coffee has an unique, robust flavor, other serious coffee lovers believe it tastes no different than regular, two bean coffee.

Who to believe? Well, it really depends if you are a skeptic or not. However, just the other week Dr. Shawn Steiman, otherwise known as Dr. Coffee (he has a Ph. D from the University of Hawaii in coffee) and author of The Hawaii Coffee Book, told a group of coffee drinkers that 15 years ago, Peaberry coffee was considered inferior to two bean coffee. With the single bean being smaller, coffee farmers looked at these small, runty beans and wondered how they could sell them. Enter a brilliant marketer, and now you have a market of rare coffee, not inferior coffee. It is also worth noting that Dr. Steiman believes Peaberry coffee tastes exactly the same as regular coffee.