Turning Point

Size Matters

19 December 2021

What I’m doing: Three roasts - 0028-0030 (Kenya)

What I’m drinking: Stage Light Roasting 575 Anoxic Natural Typica as a V60; absolutely beautiful beans

After ten pounds of Honduras, it’s now time to try something new. And new doesn’t begin to describe it. I’m roasting a Kenyan Gatomboya Peaberry. Which is a real change from the Arabica Cattura and Borbon’s I’ve been roasting for the last several weeks.

Peaberry’s are tiny. And round. And dense. And really picky about what temperature they want to crack at.

The turn around time for these three roasts was slow - at about two minutes. And they didn’t get to maillard phase until nearly 160C - which is really hot. The transition between yellowing and browning phase was also very, very short - only a minute on average.

But oh my gosh, the wait for first crack was intolerable!

I’m guessing this is a function of the density of the bean vs. it’s volume. My hunch is that the external color changed faster relative to the bean’s internal temperature. Also, the fact that these beans are round vs. flat; I wonder if this is like cooking a meatball vs. a hamburger.

Each of the three roasts was dramatically different from the others. I’m letting them de-gas and will test them later this week, but I’m really curious about how they turned out. Either I baked one or let another underdevelop.

Have you worked a peaberry before? What did you find challenging? How did you overcome these challenges? Let me know in an email. And if you received one of these roasts, let me know what you thought!