Brazil Peaberry- Yellow Bourbon
Brazil is well-known for coffee. Specifically for their huge coffee plantations similar to corn fields you could find in the United States. While they are the largest producer of coffee, providing a third of the world's supply, only a small percentage is specialty grade.
From the volumes of coffee flowing out of Minas Gerais (the largest of the three major Brazilian growing regions), we have plucked a special treat traceable to a single estate located in the protected origin of Mantiqueira de Minas region known for its rolling hills and uneven terrain. The 235 acre estate called Sitio da Torre has been owned and managed by Álvaro Antônio Pereira Coli for the last 24 years. This is the same land that his great-grandfather purchased in the late 1800s after emigrating from Italy. Álvaro has built an impressive reputation for quality consistently recognized in the Brazil Cup of the Excellence competitions over the last decade. During the harvest coffee cherries are floated to remove less dense and damaged coffee, and then placed on patios to dry. After 5 days, the coffee is moved to mechanical driers to precisely finish the drying to 11 percent moisture and then carefully stored until it is time for milling and export.
Normally the fruit ("cherry") of the coffee plant contains two seeds ("beans") that develop with flattened facing sides, but sometimes only one of the two seeds is fertilized, and the single seed develops with nothing to flatten it. This oval (or pea-shaped) bean is known as peaberry. Typically around 5% of all coffee beans harvested are of this form.
Peaberry beans roast differently from the corresponding flat berry beans; hence, to ensure an even roast in high-grade coffee, peaberry beans are often separated.
Peaberry coffee also tastes different from the coffee from normal beans from the same crop because the different bean shape leads to different roasting characteristics. It is typically more brightly acidic, more complex in the upper aromatic ranges of the profile but somewhat lighter in body, than coffee made from normally shaped beans from the same batch.
We've found our Brazil Yellow Bourbon Peaberry offering to be delightfully crisp, sweet, and a bit more complex than our typical Brazil coffee offerings. To reach it's full sweet potential with notes of Macadamia, Caramel Apple, and Milk Chocolate, we suggest brewing at 201-204 degrees at a 1/16 ratio.
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Altitude: 1,300 masl
Processing: Pulped Natural
Roast Level: Medium