hints of pumpkin bread, hazelnut chocolate, sesame cookie, tobacco, whole spices, burnt marshmallow, and aromatic wood.
Peaberries occur naturally on every coffee tree, but in very small amount (typically < 5% of the harvest). What happens is, one of two embryos inside the coffee cherry fails to germinate, leaving the other behind to take on a rounded shape as it matures. They tend to be separated out from the regular “flats” during the dry milling process where coffee is separated by size using large mechanized screen sorters.
This lot of Peaberry is specially sorted out for Sweet Maria’s from the 4 regions that they sourced coffee from – Matari, Sharqui Haraz, Hajjah, and Hiwari. All Peaberry sorted from these standard lots are combined to become this coffee. What that means is, this peaberry lot is the same coffee as the others, just the small peaberry beans that were sorted out from the rest. That fact really makes it an interesting counterpoint to any of the others.
Altitude is extremely high in these areas, starting around 2000 meters and stretching upwards of 2400 meters above sea level. This It’s been a few years now since we’ve picked up Yemeni coffee, not necessarily by choice, but mainly due to the difficulties exporting from a country at war. The situation there is still quite dire, and I’m amazed that anything is making it out of the country
Fatoum, who took over the Pearl of Tehama export business started by her father back in the 1950s. They’ve long exported Yemeni coffee, and since Fatoum has started managing the group, she has worked to implement practices such as more stringent hand sorting and using Ecotact storage bags in order to directly affect their coffee’s overall quality. We’re quite pleased with the physical condition of both coffees we bought from Fatoum this year, the lack of underripe coffee and shipping in Ecotact liners has really benefitted the resulting cup quality. During their long history in the coffee trade they’ve forged longstanding connections with farming groups in several growing regions, and because of these connections, are able to buy coffee in a more direct way.
Bean Spec:
- Origin: Yemen
- Region: Matari, Sharqui Haraz, Hajjah
- Producer: Fatoum
- Altitude: 2000-2400m
- Cultivar: Heirloom
- Processing: Natural
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s