CoffeeEmbassy

Kabare PB

Name: Kabare PB
Brand: CoffeeEmbassy
Price: 18.00 NZD
Availability: InStock

$18.00 NZD

Sale Sold out

Taxes included.

Size 250g 1kg

Grind Beans V60 Aeropress Chemex Kalita Wave Moccamaster Plunger

Quantity

Kabare PB

Producer – Various Regional Producers

Location – Kabare, Gichugu, Kirinyaga

Farm – Various smallholder farms

Variety – SL28, SL34

Altitude – 1700 - 1800 MASL

Process – Washed

Tasting Notes – Cherry, Blackcurrant, Bergamot

Roasted For – Filter

About

Cultivated by smallholder farmers on the slopes of Mount Kenya, the Kanare Farmers Cooperative Society represents approximately 1,000 farmers from the Kirinyaga District in the west of Mount Kenya.

Coffee is grown in mineral rich soils before the ripened cherries are hand-picked and delivered to the local wet mill for processing. Local farmers generally cultivate around 250 coffee trees on half acre plots. With the harvest coming from small parcels, cherry classification is the most critical variable for ensuring cup quality. Small plots give these producers more control to strategically pick and deliver only the ripest cherry.

After the coffee is washed, it’s soaked in fresh water for long periods to solidify the hallmark Kenyan profiles. The coffee is dried over a period of two weeks on raised beds, which are carefully constructed to ensure proper air circulation and temperature control for optimal drying. When the coffee is milled for export, the green beans are sorted by screen size and graded according to size and shape.

What is a peaberry and how does it form?

PB stands for peaberry.  Peaberry is a name given to a very specific shape of coffee bean. In Spanish, peaberries are called “caracol”, which means “snail”. The name aptly describes the shape of the peaberry bean, which appears slightly curved in on itself.   

Peaberries are the result of a natural mutation in the coffee cherry. Whereas there are usually two beans nestled together in each fruit, a cherry with a peaberry mutation only forms one bean. Thus, peaberries are a single, rounder bean.

Peaberry mutations occur in approximately 5% of all coffee. The beans are known for being rounder, smaller and denser, which can contribute to a more even roast color when handled correctly. Many people find peaberries to have a sweeter flavor profile, as well.

Since peaberries are a natural mutation that is not visible from the outside of the cherry, peaberries must be sorted out during the screen grading stage of dry milling. The peaberry screens have the smallest holes, which are oblong to allow the rounder beans to fall through. 

The varieties

SL-28 and SL-34 are well-known Kenyan coffee varieties. They were bred by Scott Agricultural Laboratories (SAL). SAL was founded in 1903 by the Kenyan Colonial government to function as a research institution studying agricultural products.

SL-28 and SL-34 quickly became the varieties of choice for most growers. Their deep root structures helped them acquire water in the dry environments present throughout much of Kenyan, even without irrigation. These varieties also had higher yields than the traditional French Bourbon rootstock and were considered somewhat more disease resistant.