India Allanasons Peaberry

We are so pleased that we chose this specialty coffee for the Origin of the Month. Dawn and I have been enjoying drinking the test batch very much. It is a very good coffee. We have previously brought you several other Peaberry coffees, but it is worth explaining what a Peaberry is again. Normally, two beans (seeds) form inside each coffee cherry. Sometimes though, a genetic anomaly occurs where only one bean forms. This one bean is called a Peaberry. They are rare, generally occurring in about one in nine coffee cherries. There is no such thing as a Peaberry coffee tree, so when a coffee farmer wants to put a Peaberry lot on the market, workers have to hand sort through all the beans and separate the more rounded Peaberries from the oval shaped regular coffee beans.

We have found that Peaberry lots result in a full flavored, well-rounded coffee that is sure to please. It is almost as if the one bean in a Peaberry coffee cherry gets all the good that two beans would get in a regular coffee cherry. This lot was grown in the Karnataka region of India at elevations around 4000 feet above sea level. Indian coffees are always interesting. For one thing, they are all grown in the shade of taller trees that are usually leguminous. Another thing is that coffee farmers in India intercrop the coffee trees with spices, like pepper, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric and others. This lot was intercropped with pepper, cardamom, vanilla, orange and banana trees.

The Karnataka region is really the heart of Indias coffee production. Approximately 90 percent of Indian coffee is grown here and in surrounding regions. These coffees are noted for well-rounded, balanced flavor profiles and this Peaberry certainly has those qualities. Those of us with discerning palates may get notes of milk chocolate, red apple, and cane sugar.

The varietals in this lot are S795 and Chauvery (a sub-variety of Catimor). The S795 is interesting because it is a hybrid of Kent and S228 which is a hybrid of coffee arabica and coffee liberica (two different species of coffee). Liberica is a species of coffee that is not well known and is grown mostly in the Philippines, but it is gaining popularity among specialty coffee connoisseurs. Coffee has been grown in India since the 17 th century when Arabica seeds were smuggled out of Yemen and planted in Karnataka. The height of Indian coffee production was in the 19 th century, but leaf rust outbreaks caused many farmers to switch from growing Arabica to growing Robusta. Sadly, this trend continues today
because the hilly terrain in India makes coffee production very labor intensive and Arabica plants are susceptible to leaf rust. About 60 percent of India’s coffee production costs are tied up in labor. More and more producers in India are making the switch to growing Robusta for its disease resistance and ability to withstand higher temperatures.

This coffee was graded in April of 2024 and received a cup score of 84.0