The coffee beans that we know are generally of the dicot or double seed type. But sometimes coffee beans mutate as they grow so that they produce fruit with a single seed. This single bean coffee is known as peaberry or lanang coffee.
Peaberries or caracollio (from the Spanish word caracol which means snail) grow naturally due to an imperfect flower pollination process combined with environmental conditions. Based on physical standards of shape and size, peaberries fall into the category of deformed seeds, so they were often discarded during sorting. The size is usually smaller and also denser than normal coffee beans. Peaberries usually make up 5-10% of the coffee harvested so peaberries are considered rare. This applies to Arabica and Robusta coffee.
Even though peaberries are defective seeds, they are quite sought after. The myth circulating says that drinking peaberry coffee is thought to increase male stamina and prevent erectile dysfunction. This is why peaberry is also called lanang coffee (men’s coffee). Lanang coffee generally contains 10% to 13% more caffeine than regular coffee so it can further stimulate the testosterone hormone. This coffee is also useful for reducing the risk of diabetes, improving blood circulation, and eliminating dizziness.
In terms of taste, peaberry is different from regular coffee from the same harvest. Due to their oval shape, peaberries have a different character when baked. Therefore peaberries are always separated from other coffee beans before the roasting process to be processed separately. In general, peaberries are more tart, richer in aroma, and lighter in body than coffee from the same harvest. Peaberry fans claim that it has a soft taste with a dense texture and an aroma similar to luwak coffee.
Because peaberries cannot be distinguished from regular coffee beans when they are still cherries, they must be sorted manually after washing and then processed separately. The combination of rarity, taste, benefits, and a process that takes more time and effort, causes the price of peaberry to tend to be higher than regular coffee. The most famous peaberries from Tanzania are sold for around IDR 700,000 to IDR 1 million per kilogram. Because the demand for peaberries is quite high, several coffee business players are trying to respond by developing coffee plants that have the potential to produce high peaberries.
Overview of information about peaberries. If you are curious to try it, you can include Toraja peaberry coffee which has a distinctive taste as an option. For high quality Toraja coffee, you can try coffee from the Sulotco coffee plantation in the Rantekarua mountains, Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi. Get our coffee products at the official Sulotco online shop on Tokopedia.
