The last time we were at Trader Joe's, I needed some more coffee beans. Joe's has a pretty interesting selection, and I found something new: peaberry coffee. I don't suppose it's actually new, but I've never seen it before. It sounded interesting, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Plus it was on sale.
Peaberry coffee is an oddity of coffee growing. The half-oval beans you're used to grow in pairs. They are actually two separate fruits that grow together in the same "cherry." However, about 5% of the time, only one of the fruits is fertilized, and the other doesn't develop. The fertilized one fills the whole cherry, resulting in the shape shown above. Here's a page with more detail from some Canadian coffee company.
This stuff was marketed as "smoother" or "more complex" or some such thing. It was fine coffee, but no better than other good coffees I've had in the past. From what I can tell, these beans used to be discarded as less desirable. However, I think some coffee marketer looked at the beans and his gears started turning. "Hey," he thought, rubbing his hands together as an evil leer wormed its way across his face, "Instead of throwing these beans away as 'defective,' we could package them as 'special' and market them to coffee snobs, thereby making 5% more money off the backs of these poor tropical people and thus allowing us to buy 5% larger private jets and 5% more attractive servants." At least that's how I picture it. Maybe they just woke up and realized it's silly to throw away a perfectly good 5% of your crop just because it looks a little different.
I just found it a little odd that, after all these years of drinking coffee, I just now heard about these wonderful new defective beans. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I spend too much time at Starbucks and therefore miss out on the more gourmet coffee options out there. Whatever. It's fine coffee, but I'm not sure it's as special as Trader Joe's tried to make me believe.
Peaberry coffee is an oddity of coffee growing. The half-oval beans you're used to grow in pairs. They are actually two separate fruits that grow together in the same "cherry." However, about 5% of the time, only one of the fruits is fertilized, and the other doesn't develop. The fertilized one fills the whole cherry, resulting in the shape shown above. Here's a page with more detail from some Canadian coffee company.
This stuff was marketed as "smoother" or "more complex" or some such thing. It was fine coffee, but no better than other good coffees I've had in the past. From what I can tell, these beans used to be discarded as less desirable. However, I think some coffee marketer looked at the beans and his gears started turning. "Hey," he thought, rubbing his hands together as an evil leer wormed its way across his face, "Instead of throwing these beans away as 'defective,' we could package them as 'special' and market them to coffee snobs, thereby making 5% more money off the backs of these poor tropical people and thus allowing us to buy 5% larger private jets and 5% more attractive servants." At least that's how I picture it. Maybe they just woke up and realized it's silly to throw away a perfectly good 5% of your crop just because it looks a little different.
I just found it a little odd that, after all these years of drinking coffee, I just now heard about these wonderful new defective beans. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I spend too much time at Starbucks and therefore miss out on the more gourmet coffee options out there. Whatever. It's fine coffee, but I'm not sure it's as special as Trader Joe's tried to make me believe.
2 comments:
Try the Ethiopian! Very good stuff (as far as not fresh roasted beans go). It's my new TJ's favorite.
I've had their Ethiopian. I think that's the one I usually end up choosing when I'm there, but hey, a sale's a sale.
I think my favorite coffee (made at home anyway) is an Ethiopian one that was fresh roasted at a Costco, of all places. I think it was even organic. A Costco store in Salem has an in-store roaster that keeps going pretty much constantly. Salem's about 45 minutes away, so I only get by there occasionally, if I happen to be down that way and have some time. It's good stuff though.
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