What is Bali Peaberry Coffee? Why is Bali Peaberry Coffee So Expensive?

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Bali Peaberry Coffee

Bali peaberry is a variant of coffee bean, primarily referring to Peaberry or caracoli, while "peaberry" is just a common Chinese term.

Formation

The exact cause of peaberry formation has not been scientifically confirmed, but it is known that coffee beans growing at the ends of coffee tree branches are more likely to exhibit this phenomenon.

Classification

Coffee beans are the fruit of the coffee tree. Normally, a single fruit (coffee cherry) contains two coffee beans, known as Type I. However, due to the aforementioned factors, some fruits develop only a single bean when mature. This oval-shaped single coffee bean is called peaberry, or Type II. In contrast to Type II, Type I is sometimes colloquially referred to as "female bean" in Chinese. In fact, the two are merely differences in coffee bean growth patterns, not gender differences, and the Chinese terminology can be misleading.

Related Products

Currently, there are peaberry varieties on the market:

A notable example is Kona (an Arabica coffee variety grown in Hawaii), where about 5% of Kona coffee beans are peaberry type.

Bali Golden Coffee has about 5% peaberry type beans.

Tanzania Peaberry contains about 5%-10% peaberry type beans, and they are particularly small in size.

Generally, peaberry beans account for about 5%-10% of the single fruits (coffee cherries) on a coffee tree.

Flavor and Price

Some coffee enthusiasts believe that peaberry possesses a more intense aroma. Combined with its relatively scarce production, peaberry is sometimes sold at inflated high prices.

In reality, different coffee bean varieties with peaberry characteristics have varying flavors. Additionally, the factors that create peaberry formation may also be influenced by human intervention.

In all coffee bean grading, the number of times a batch of coffee beans is manually hand-sorted is the primary factor determining price differentiation. Peaberry coffee requires individual manual selection of each bean. During this selection process, any possibility of broken beans, poorly developed beans, or other defective beans being mixed in is eliminated. During roasting, the factors that could reduce quality due to defective beans are minimized. This is the main reason why small-scale production (peaberry) and large-scale production (unsorted beans) cannot be compared on equal footing. Peaberry beans (round shape) heat more evenly during roasting compared to regular mixed beans (varying sizes, even with broken pieces), eliminating the burnt taste that can affect quality when broken beans overheat.

Bali coffee trees predominantly grow in the high mountains of north-central Bali at altitudes of 1000-2000 meters.

Due to the region's cool, foggy climate, which is perfect for coffee tree growth, Bali's "Golden Coffee" was born.

For someone like me who isn't particularly well-versed in coffee, this was my first time hearing that coffee has male and female distinctions.

The male beans are relatively complete and larger, while the female beans are the half-beans we commonly see, which are more slender and elongated.

Because peaberry beans are rarer, their prices also differ.

Bali's "Golden Coffee" is a fine-ground coffee with a flavor that is neither sour nor astringent, rather sweet and bitter, leaving an endless aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small storefront but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

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