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Understanding Peaberry Coffee

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"Peaberry" is a variant of coffee bean. Botanically, peaberry can be considered a defect, with two main causes: one is damage to the coffee fruit by insects before it matures, and the other may be factors such as prolonged drought or nutritional imbalance in coffee trees. Additionally, coffee beans growing at the ends of coffee tree branches may also exhibit this phenomenon.

Normal coffee trees cannot distinguish between peaberries and regular beans when the fruit matures. You need to open the fruit to see the shape of the beans inside. After removing the fruit skin and pulp, if the green coffee bean clearly splits into two halves, like a cut peach, this is a "female" bean. If it's round and whole, it's called a "peaberry."

Only 5% of the beans on a coffee tree are peaberries, while the rest are regular beans. In fact, peaberries are deformities that occur during coffee bean growth. Generally, coffee beans have two cotyledons, but peaberries have only one, hence they are also called "single beans." One cotyledon absorbs more nutrients, making the coffee beans appear larger in color, shape, and size. When brewed, the coffee has a continuous fragrance and lingering aftertaste. Due to their scarcity, they are also known as "dream coffee."

However, because of their small quantity, only a few out of every hundred coffee beans are peaberries. Generally, coffee farmers do not specifically separate them for sale, and this difference is truly difficult to discover unless you visit the production site directly or handle them personally. Of course, some individual merchants may sell peaberries. But as the saying goes, rarity makes things valuable, and naturally, coffee with peaberries is considered more valuable (approximately 5 out of 100 beans).

Peaberry coffee is manually selected one by one from mixed coffee beans. Most coffee powders sold in the market are mixtures of peaberries and regular beans.

This is what mature coffee beans look like when growing on trees, waiting to be picked. They appear like cherries, and the nucleus inside the pulp is the coffee bean.

Understanding Civet Coffee

"Civet coffee" is a vulgar name given by Hong Kong people, but it actually has a romantic name: Civet Coffee.

First, let's understand what a civet is. Civets are most species of the Viverridae family (see image above). Their bodies are small and soft, and most inhabit trees. Generally, they look like cats, but with a longer and even pointed nose, somewhat resembling otters or mongooses. Civet lengths vary, measuring about 0.4-0.7 meters excluding the tail, and weighing 1-5 kilograms.

Civets are an important source of stabilizers in perfume production, and they were once killed in large numbers for this reason. The perianal glands of civets retain their musky excretions. To obtain these substances, their perianal glands must be scraped, which causes great pain to the civet. Both male and female civets excrete these strongly scented substances.

Civets mainly feed on coffee beans. After the coffee beans complete fermentation in the civet's stomach, proteins are broken down, producing short peptides and more free amino acids. The bitterness of the coffee is reduced. The excreted feces become the main raw material. Since coffee beans cannot be digested, they are excreted. After cleaning and roasting, they become civet coffee. Coffee critic Chris Rubin said, "The aroma is so rich and intense, and the coffee is unbelievably rich, almost like syrup. Its thickness and chocolate texture linger on the tongue for a long time, with a pure aftertaste."

Civets are omnivorous animals. Besides eating seeds for survival, they also eat insects, snakes, birds, and amphibious reptiles. Therefore, the feces excreted by truly wild civets are mixed with various substances. In Indonesia, some farmers capture civets for captive breeding, feeding them coffee beans to produce civet coffee. However, there are still certain differences between artificial cultivation and natural processes.

Civet coffee production is very small, and therefore particularly expensive. Moreover, places selling it are even rarer. Even in its country of origin, Indonesia, it is not commonly seen. Therefore, most civet coffee sold on the market is from captive breeding, and its flavor naturally differs from the most original and natural wild civet coffee.

In Indonesian, Kopi means coffee and Luwak means civet. The natural production areas and artificial breeding farms for civet coffee are mainly concentrated on islands such as Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Sulawesi in Indonesia, as well as the Philippines and some other places. It is one of the most expensive coffees in the world, at approximately HK$3,080 per kilogram. A cup of "civet coffee" brewed from 12 grams of coffee powder costs about HK$480.

Civet Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted wild civet coffee beans have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high cost-effectiveness. A 100-gram package costs only about 250. Calculating based on 15 grams per cup of single-origin coffee, one package can make 6 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 40-50. Compared to cafes that often sell cups for over a hundred yuan, this is extremely cost-effective.

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473