Peaberry might sound like some sort of homemade vegetable soup, but no! It’s much more interesting and relevant to your coffee needs than you might have presumed.
Essentially, peaberry coffee beans form when only one of the two beans inside the coffee pod is fertilised. By contrast, normal coffee pods will have two beans growing side by side together in the plant, and will thus have a flat bottom (in being in contact with each other), so the main difference is that the single peaberry pod grows in an oval shape as it isn’t flattened against the other pod.
While the normal ‘flat berry’ beans account for around 95% of the coffee beans in circulation, it’s well worth your while to experiment with the higher expense of peaberry coffee. Roasters claim peaberry coffee offers a more even, consistent roast. This is on account of the smooth pea shape of the bean. Not having the flat surfaces which often interrupt the evenness of the roasting process in normal pods results in more roasting consistency. Furthermore, peaberry beans are cited to have a higher bean density, and are often sorted more carefully, which means that there is richer, and more refined flavour for all the coffee lovers out there to embrace.
Peaberry coffee tends to be more expensive. That’s because they are fairly rare mutations in the pod and require extensive and time-consuming sorting processes. But that only adds to the exclusivity and sense of a premium offering.
Some (including me) argue that the difference in taste is negligible, however, for those willing to experience a nuanced, sweeter, smaller bean that still packs the punch in terms of flavour profile, peaberry coffee beans are definitely worth a try.