Peaberry – Colombia Microlot

Peaberry – Colombia Microlots

About the Colombian Farms

La Primavera Finca is a relatively small organic family farm,  in the Cudinamarca region.  More than 25% of the land is laid fallow to rainforest where a huge number of bird species thrive. The coffee is organic, bird-friendly and shade-grown.

The huge marshlands nearby in this high altitiude region, creates a micro climate of low cloud and unique indigenuos trees, with high humidity and high rainfall – which can help the crop, but hampers the drying process at times!  They support ten families all year round, and many more during harvest.  In addition they have invested in their own dry mill on the farm itself to help ensure quality of process, to add value, and help diversify income. 

After Ian’s first visit he reflected that he had “never seen a farm so committed to eco system preservation, to shade grown coffee and to harmony with it’s environment.” (you can read the full origin report in our journal)

About Microlots

This is a small batch, limited edition guest coffee sourced through our friend Francisco (who grows our beautiful La primavera Colombian coffee as well as facilitating shipping the coffee from the Gacheta community) in Colombia .  Working with his network we are able to bring in some exciting guest coffees for you to try whilst maintaining a high standard over quality, people and planet. We only have one sack of this one so it will go quick.It is a super small batch, limited edition coffee.

Arabica coffees grown in Colombia are widely regarded throughout the world amongst the best, this is largely thanks to the high altitude, as well as consistently high rainfall and temperatures throughout the year thanks to it’s proximity to the equator.

These microlots are new exotic varietals been developed and experimented with by farmers in recent years – they often cost more, need more land, offer lower yields and less resistant to disease so many farmers shy away, although if successful the intensity, variety and exciting acidity of flavours can be rewarding not only in taste but in premium price for the small high cupping score crop.

What is a Peaberry?

Usually when a coffee beans grow it grows as two seeds inside a cherry, which are then extracted, and processed giving us the ‘green bean.’ This is what we as roaster receive and then roast.

Peaberry coffee beans are technically a natural defect, but we don’t like that word as it implies there’s something wrong with them. Peaberries are picked and extracted as the farmers would usually do, however during the processing they are sorted from the main crop for quality control.

The main visual differences is that they are much smaller and rounder than the main crop but when cupped (our pretentious word for tasting) you find it is a more intense flavour – because where two seeds would normally develop within the cherry, you find only one and this is what we call ‘peaberry’.  Essentially, these smaller, rounded beans (seed) are getting double the shot of flavour and nutrients from the fruit, leads to an exciting burst of flavour in the cup.

Peaberry Details:

Roast: Medium

Tasting Notes: Milk Chocolate & Macadamia

Varietal: Washed

Altitude: 1,750 m a.s.l. m

Process: Washed

Score: 85

Region: Cundinamarca, Colombia