Roasting Peaberry Coffees

[Steve Freides]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaberry

What should a home roaster do differently when roasting a peaberry
coffee? I was looking on Sweet Maria's and currently their only
Sumatra offering is a peaberry.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.indonesia.sumatra.php

The above web page notes "The body is lighter than our other Sumatra
offerings" which makes me wonder if we'd like it as much - we really
do go for the richness of Sumatra and we roast about Vienna, some oily
beans but not all, about :30-:60 once the second crack has started as
a rule.

Comments about peaberry coffees in general would be appreciated here,
e.g., do you generally roast longer or shorter to achieve the same
roast level, and are there flavor characteristics common to all
peaberry coffees as compared to their "normal" cousins?

Again, many thanks in advance for your replies.

-S-

[Barry Jarrett]

On 4/17/2013 11:59 AM, Steve Freides wrote:

> Comments about peaberry coffees in general would be appreciated here,
> e.g., do you generally roast longer or shorter to achieve the same
> roast level, and are there flavor characteristics common to all
> peaberry coffees as compared to their "normal" cousins?

I don't recall doing anything differently... And there is lots of lore
about peaberry taste, but I've yet to see that lore survive a blind tasting.

[North L. Sullivan]

Same here. I had customers swear that the peaberry coffee made all of
the difference in the world to them for taste. It's a great way to
market small beans.

North Sullivan

[AyTee]

What kind of roaster do you use? If you use a fluid bed roaster, you may find the beans do not agitate as easily because the round beans are more aerodynamic; which is to say that they offer less resistance to air movement and therefore require more force to keep them moving. That is the only consideration I can think of. I agree with Barry and North that the superiority of peaberries is overrated.

Andy

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 9:59:18 AM UTC-7, Steve Freides wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaberry

What should a home roaster do differently when roasting a peaberry

coffee?  [etc.]

[Steve Freides]

I use a popcorn popper.

-S-

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[AyTee]

So my guess may apply, as a popper is a fluid bed roaster. (Reading my own post, now I'm not sure whether less resistance to air movement makes the beans more aerodynamic or less aerodynamic; but my point about needing more force to agitate the beans, still holds...I think.)

On Thursday, May 2, 2013 4:31:49 AM UTC-7, Steve Freides wrote:

I use a popcorn popper.

-S-

[Steve Freides]

We're getting into aerodynamic esoterica here, but I think the
movement of the beans comes from the fact that chamber that holds them
spins, no? Is it air or just the spinning motion that agitates the
beans? (I'm going to roast again this afternoon - I'll have to look
to confirm the spinning.)

-S-

[ba...@coffeeprojects.com]

> We're getting into aerodynamic esoterica here, but I think the
> movement of the beans comes from the fact that chamber that holds them
> spins, no? Is it air or just the spinning motion that agitates the
> beans? (I'm going to roast again this afternoon - I'll have to look
> to confirm the spinning.)

In a popper, the chamber doesn't move. The beans move about in the
spinning mass of air.

[Steve Freides]

Thank you, Barry.

-S-

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-S- Sent from my iPad via Gmail Mobile