Peaberry, known in Spanish as caracolillo, is a type of

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

bean. Normally the fruit ("cherry") of the

coffee plant ''Coffea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. ''Coffea'' species are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. The seeds of some species, called coffee beans, are used to flavor variou ...

contains two seeds ("beans") that develop with flattened facing sides, but sometimes only one of the two seeds is fertilized, and the single seed develops with nothing to flatten it. This oval (or

pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

-shaped) bean is known as peaberry. Typically around 5% of all coffee beans harvested are of this form. Normal coffee beans are less commonly called by contrast flat berry. Peaberry coffees are particularly associated with Tanzanian Coffee, although the peaberry variety of

Kona coffee Kona coffee is the market name for coffee (''Coffea arabica'') cultivated on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the North and South Kona Districts of the Big Island of Hawaii. It is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Only coffe ...

has also become quite prominent.

Roasting

Peaberry beans roast differently from the corresponding flat berry beans; hence, to ensure an even roast in high-grade coffee peaberry beans are often separated. Peaberry coffee tastes different from the coffee from normal beans from the same crop because the different bean shape leads to different roasting characteristics. The reference states that peaberry coffee is typically more brightly acidic, more complex in the upper aromatic ranges of the profile but somewhat lighter in body, than coffee made from normally shaped beans from the same batch. However, the claim that peaberry beans roast better and more evenly than flat beans because their rounder shape allows the berries to roll more easily has not been substantiated.

Notes

Coffea {{coffee-stub