Monday morning was wholly transformed by this cup of Tanzanian Peaberry coffee. There was a nutty milk chocolate taste to it (Cadbury Fruit and Nut, to be exact) with a slight acidic finish. No bitterness. I did not have a clue about peaberries before. According to beancentral.com, “A peaberry occurs when the coffee cherry develops only one bean instead of the normal two. This creates a rounder, smaller bean. It occurs in roughly 2-3% of all cherries.”
The bean is stouter and not bisected. It’s a small package with a lot of punch - earthy, independent and full of Tanzanian terroir. A great morning coffee because it's lighter bodied, but with personality. It was a nice contrast to my usual lead-like injection of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. If you do buy some, you have to be careful of which kind you buy. I read that because it fetches such a high price in the U.S. no matter what, the quality is highly variable.
Maure had so kindly given me a bag of these beans on his visit here. Apparently, I deserved it after we had gone to New Yeah for some salted pork belly and preserved vegetable. Accompanying the gift was a takeout menu from Simpang Asia in Los Angeles, which lists corned beef fried rice as one of its menu items. What! CORNED BEEF FRIED RICE. Yeah. Sounds like something born from a non-believer’s Christmas dinner. I am hoping he will write about this intriguing dish for this blog soon.
How interesting - I used to *only* by this type of coffee, without knowing a thing about it other than that it tasted GOOD, but I moved on to other beans and blends after getting a couple of really lackluster bags of it. It's definitely worth seeking out a reliable source for it.
Posted by: Tiny Banquet Committee | December 15, 2007 at 06:13 PM
Not sure if you are gonna see this b/c it's such a tardy response, but....what kind of beans are you into now?
xo
Posted by: Michelle | January 04, 2008 at 07:00 PM