How much do you know about peaberry coffee? 

This genetic anomaly turned specialty product is a relative rarity in the coffee world. It garners great hype from some coffee lovers, but can you taste any difference? 

What's so special about peaberry coffee?

Coffee beans normally grow two to a fruit - two oblong seeds pressed flat together. But in around 5-10% of cases the fruit produces just one seed - this is the round, small and aptly named peaberry.

Any varietal of coffee can produce this mutation, and there’s no way of telling from looking at the outside of the fruit whether it contains a peaberry.

This makes selecting enough peaberries to make a harvest a manual and time-consuming task, and makes buying a whole bag of these sought after beans relatively expensive.

You’re most likely find peaberry coffees exported from Brazil, Tanzania and Kenya where they already have the infrastructure in place to sort and select a peaberry harvest.

Does peaberry coffee really taste any different?

Some coffee lovers claim that a cup made from peaberries tastes notably sweeter and flavourful than beans without the mutation.

Can you taste a difference?

Try Kenyan peaberry coffee in August's Roaster's Choice coffee box subscription.

Join our best-selling coffee subscription and you'll receive exclusive and limited-edition coffees each month selected by UK Roasting Champion Nick Mabey. From the first box you'll begin to discover a whole world of specialty coffees...