SUPERMARKETGURU FOOD &
HEALTH WEEKLY NEWSFLASH!
TREE TO CUP: Coffee Bean Anomalies: Maragogipe and Peaberry
Published on: June 1, 2007
Typically, most coffee fruit contains two beans, but occasionally only a single bean rests in the cherry, and that single bean is called the peaberry. While some growers believe it is of higher quality, and more intense flavor, others see this as an agricultural aberration or defect. Those who prize it sell it at a premium and others simply discard peaberry beans as "off-grade" and never bring them to market.
Also known as the caracole in Spanish, the peaberry results when the coffee tree sustains insect damage to its flowers, stress from imbalances in nutrition (particularly as a result of drought), or when cherries grow too close to the tips of the branches. The peaberry is the size and shape of a pea, with a tiny crevice that splits it halfway down the middle which many roasters believe allows for an easier roasting challenge as their shape easily can accommodate an even roast. The result is a medium bodied, slightly acidic brew in the cup with a light and sweet, nearly floral aroma.
The primary sources for most peaberry beans come from Kona in Hawaii, where 5% of the crop is peaberry, Tanzania where they are most frequently found on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro grown under the shades of banana trees, and in Zimbawe, where it is rarer and produces a very complex, nutty quality in the cup. Peaberry coffee is usually offered by country or estate name, and although it is found everywhere that coffee is grown, the African countries of Zimbawe and Tanzania, in addition to Kona, are the predominant sources on today's market.
The second anomaly in coffee beans is at the other end of the spectrum from the peaberry, the large Maragogipe, or elephant bean, that is very large, porous, and is actually a mutant bean first discovered in the town of Maragogipe in the northeastern state of Bahia in Brazil. It is now grown in other Latin American countries, but its flavor is not that of the true Maragogipe because the beans take on the flavor characteristics typical to the soil of these countries. In turn, these beans make an entirely different cup, one with thicker body but less sharpness than that of the true Arabica elephant or Maragogipe bean.
Maragogipes are now quite rare because farmers would rather plant and produce trees that will provide more traditional beans. The best Maragogipes can be found in Chiapas in Mexico, and in the Coban district of Guatemala, although Nicaragua also produces some good quality Maragogipe beans. A hybrid, called the pacamara, is a large bean grown primarily on the Los Ausoles and Larin estates in El Salvador and produces a soft full taste in the cup.
