Peaberry Showdown

Papua New Guinea - Kimel Peaberry
Kenya - Kahura Peabery
Tanzania - Kigoma Peaberry

When only one can be the best, I am on the job, and I put the coffee to the test. The other day my wife suggested that we do a taste test and explore the three types of Peaberry coffees that I currently have. So we did. She and I both sampled all three types, and we rated them according to Aroma, Flavor, Body, Complexity, and Uniqueness. Here were the results.

*****Kimel Peaberry*****

Aroma: John- 7 Megan- 8
Flavor: John- 8 Megan- 8
Body: John- 6 Megan- 4
Complexity: John- 4 Megan- 4
Uniqueness: John- 10 Megan- 10
TOTALS: John- 35 Megan- 26 (61)

*****Kahura Peaberry*****
Aroma: John- 7 Megan- 6
Flavor: John- 8 Megan- 6
Body: John- 5 Megan- 7
Complexity: John- 4 Megan- 8
Uniqueness: John- 10 Megan- 6
TOTALS: John- 34 Megan- 35 (69)

*****Kigoma Peaberry*****
Aroma: John- 9 Megan- 5
Flavor: John- 7 Megan- 7
Body: John- 4 Megan- 8
Complexity: John- 7 Megan- 7
Uniqueness: John- 10 Megan- 7
TOTALS: John- 37 Megan- 34 (71)

Since I am writing this I will describe my experience as my wife will have to speak for herself.

As I roasted these beans I had a tough time hearing them crack and so I ended up with 3 different levels of roast with each batch. The Kimel was Dark Roasted, the Kahura was darker roasted, and the Kigoma was sweating oil when I was finished with it. (Mmmmmm - French Roasted coffee)

I liked the Kigoma best for its Aroma. This one jumped out at me but It is completely possible that it had the best aroma because it was the darkest roasted. But, for whatever reason, it was a great Aroma.

The Kimel and the Kahura were the best tasting as they both demonstrated a complex Flavor that made you happy to be alive. This is not to say that the Kigoma made you wish for death but either my palatte was tired by time I got to it or it was not as good as the rest as far as Flavor went.

The Kimel seemed to have the best Body but then after loking at how the Body numbers dropped with the progress of the sampling I suspect that my subjectivity may have been in question.

With Complexity I was looking for definite taste attributes like floral, woody, and nutty. In this arena the Kigoma stood out as it had a definite nutty/woody attribute in its flavor.

I scored each of the 3 coffees with a 10 for Uniqueness because each of them are wholly unique from regular Arabica or Robusta coffees. I did not compare them against one another but with coffee in general.

By the end of our testing my favorite wound up being Kigoma with a combined score of 37 points. I attribute this to it having the best Aroma and only being one point below the rest in Flavor. So there you have it, if you are ever at the coffee shop and the person behind the counter ever asks you what type of Peaberry you would like, look then straigt in the eye and proudly proclaim that you would like a cup od Kigoma Peaberry... (snort) I'm only kidding, none of the coffee shops around you are sophisticated enough to actually serve anything but the swill that you are used to. (snort, snort)

Moving on... Upon completion of the testing I simply blended all three types of the Peaberry together and made a super tasting brew with an awesome body. When blending coffees it will ussually combine the good and the bad and the resultant coffee is either one or the other but since none of these three was ever bad the result of the blend is that the strengths of each Peaberry strengthened the experience of the whole cup.

Until next time - Happy Roasting!!!

You know? If I were to start a coffee shop I would sell coffees by individual type, roast the green beans while you wait, grind it in a fancy-shmantcy Burr grinder, and serve it to you in a one cup French Press as you sit in an over-stuffed chair with your favorite book. Aww, who'm I kidding? That sort of coffee shop would be too expensive to own and operate. Oh well, one can dream can't he?

Kahura Peabery

Kenya

I just roasted another Peabery - this makes the forth kind so far. As I type I am waiting for it to fully steep so that I can taste it. I am so excited I might just wet myself (ok, not really but I am excited).

This bean seemed to be more dense than any other bean. I usually roast 2/3 C of green beans without incident but this time the air was not moving the beans to roast them evenly. So, I did what anyone would do - I stood there shaking the roaster.

(Be right back, I have to get the coffee and I think I hear the baby crying)
(Alright, I got the coffee and the baby is babbling and contained safely in her crib)

This cup smells wonderful, like an autumn evening after the leaves have fallen. I mean, this cup smells "take her home to mother" good. It is a pleasure to just sit and smell her beauty and imagine that first kiss. When I dared to lean over for a peck on the cheek I was rewarded with a passion that only a woman can deliver. The flavor is woody and nutty with a depth that only Alice's rabbit hole can know. This flavor begs for a pallet to cause to rejoice and it makes the angels sing. If only I were in the business of roasting coffee - the world would know peace.

I highly recommend this Kahura Peabery...

BINGO! I Call It "Manna" (Blend #5)

Have you ever wondered how some flavors were developed? I suppose much of it is just like it happens in the commercial where one idiot is walking down the street eating a chocolate bar while some other fool is walking down an adjoining street eating peanut butter from the jar, both so engrossed in their snacks that "POW" they run into each other and the chocolate accidentally got into the peanut butter and the Peanut Butter Cup emerges. OR... Some chemical engineer needs to come up with a new flavor to save his hide from the unemployment line and starts mixing all sorts of wacky flavors until "BINGO" they invent a winner.

Well I, like the chemical engineer, keep putting coffee beans together in the hopes of finding a Bingo. Yesterday I found a winner and I call it "Manna"

1 oz. Zimbabwe Salimba
1 oz. Kenyan Gichi Kiambu
1 oz. Sumatran Aceh Gold

I roasted this batch to a Full-City+ removing the heat just as the second crack was starting. I brewed it in the french press which created a very full body cup but not (as my wife commonly refers to it) chewy. And the aroma was mildly sweet and fragrant with no hint of a rogue acidity.

The flavor was full, deep and rich - free of free floating background taste-nuances and bitters. This cup was so good that my wife suggested that I make this for her tea-party this Saturday. Even though my wife is developing a taste for good coffee, this is a huge compliment to the flavor of this blend.

I am going to blend this again to make sure that I get a consistent cup and when I do I think I will take on Timmy Horton's.

Blend #3

1/2 oz. of Ethiopia's-Harar Horse
1/2 oz. of Costa Rica's-Tres Rios La Magnolia
1 oz. of Kenya's-Gichi Kiambu

I roasted this recipe together until I heard the Second Crack begin - "Full City+ to French Roast" The beans emerged a soft mocha brown without any caramelizing and escaping of the oils.

I ground the beans very coarse as I brewed 2 TBS. of the coffee in the French Press for 4 minutes. The aroma was pleasing -floral and chocolaty. Quite enjoyable.

The flavor reminds me of a Peaberry with a full bodied mouth feel. Slighly sweet from the floral attributes of the Horse and the Magnolia. These two flavors seem to play very well together. I consider this recipe to be my first successful blend.

Gichi Kiambu

Kenya

First a little background...

There are two different species of coffee bushes, aribica and robusta. Aribica requires more care and produces less beans per plant so it is more rare and more expensive. The robusta plants produce more beans, require less care, and so the beans are cheaper and more readily available.

This Gichi bean, from the Kiambu region of Kenya, is a bean from the arbica species of plant. It is known as the "Kenya AA" and is noted for its fruity attribute. It is known as the "peachy gichi" (get it? It ryhmes - cute huh?) but I have not noticed this. However, this cup is vibrantly bold as a City to Full-City roast. The Gichi's flavor was unexpected as it possessed a lot of flavor for such a light roast. I noticed a dominant earthy tone which was slightly sweet but just noticeably so. Its aroma is inspiringly different but it did not seem to have anything that could be pinpointed as a noticeable attribute.

This would be a good cup to use as a taster against other cups as it is distinctive enough to warrant its own viewing.

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 5.