Which is Better: Peaberry or Regular Coffee Beans? Can You Taste the Gender Difference in Indonesian Peaberry and Regular Beans?

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FrontStreet Coffee - Male and Female Coffee Beans

Coffee Beans

Coffee takes approximately five years from cultivation to fruit production and harvest. During this process, steps including flowering, fruiting, harvesting, processing, storage, and sales occur until we receive the green coffee beans at the terminal market. Due to their similar appearance, coffee is also called coffee cherries. Removing the outer skin and pulp reveals two seeds - these are the common coffee beans we know. Therefore, a normally growing coffee cherry typically contains two coffee beans, commonly known as flat beans, which professionals refer to as "female beans."

Male Beans

Another scenario is when a coffee cherry contains only one seed, commonly known as a peaberry, which professionals refer to as "male beans."

Formation Reason

During the growth process, one seed stops growing, allowing the other seed to fill the entire internal space of the coffee cherry. It is not considered a defective bean and is artificially believed to have better quality compared to flat beans. This is merely due to its slightly special appearance. Strictly speaking, it's more of an incompletely developed single seed, accounting for approximately 10-20% of total production at most.

In all the flat beans and peaberries I have encountered, peaberries have never shown superior performance to flat beans due to their fuller flesh texture, without exception. (In fact, the fuller flesh texture actually increases the difficulty of roasting.)

I won't speculate on the underlying motivations behind businesses promoting the concept of "male and female" beans, but I hope that after reading this article, you understand: whether coffee tastes good has almost nothing to do with size or shape. Therefore, indicators such as extra-large beans, AA+ beans, or extra-hard beans cannot serve as criteria for good-tasting coffee. Only your sense of smell and taste can determine whether the coffee you purchase is worth it. As for which of the two types of coffee beans tastes better, theoretically it should be male beans because they absorb more nutrients, but there hasn't been extensive research on this. Therefore, aside from being sold as specialty products in tourist areas, the coffee industry rarely emphasizes this concept.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473