Featured coffee sampler: July

Kenya (Obadiah), Kenya Peaberry (Phil&Sebastian), Columbia (Cupping Room)

In order notes:
1) Select your bean combo 2) select your grind size (or unground) 3) Select "individual packaging" or "bulk by variety"

This month we have two Kenyan coffees for you to compare and contrast (Obadiah and Phil+Sebastian, we made a post about them on our site (coffee -> July coffee). We counter the two fruity explosions with a really interesting Columbian coffee roasted in Hong Kong by Cupping Room. Flavor notes on this guy claim “Cola and white grape”. I had trouble identifying Cola specifically, but it definitely tasted sweeter and more tart than I would have expected from a South American coffee.

Now… for the Kenyans.

If you compare the beans from the two Kenyan coffees, you might notice a distinct difference in shape… Typically coffee beans grow within the coffee cherry in two halves of a sphere with flat sides in. That’s why when you see most coffee beans, they have a flat side and a rounded side. However, about 5% of coffee cherries grow their bean as a single, spherical “pea”. It’s sort of an anomaly; you can’t really predict which cherry will have a pea, so to get a full bag of peaberries, they often have to sort them by hand. 

Peaberries are often considered to be sweeter and of higher quality than their flat-top brothers, but the reasons for this is somewhat dubious. It’s likely the uniform, spherical geometry helps roasters get a more consistent level of roast since there aren’t any flat spots or edges to focus heat into. Additionally, since the peaberries roast differently from standard beans, they require sorting… which likely results in another level of manual inspection and quality control. 

As with all of the coffee we send out, we default to unground, but can grind to whatever brew method you prefer. Just let us know when you place your order.

Important note: SHIPPING IS INCLUDED IN THE BASE PRICE WITHIN NORTH AMERICA! YIPEE