Kenya PB (Peaberry)

What a peaberry is

A normal cherry contains two seeds with flat facing sides. When only one of the two ovules develops, the single seed grows into the available space and takes a rounded form. It occurs naturally in a small proportion of every harvest, at every origin.

It is not a variety, not a defect, and not a signal about the tree or the farm. See Tanzania peaberry for the fuller treatment of the separation and the mythology around it.

The Kenyan case specifically

Kenyan PB carries the same factory and outturn identity as the flat-bean grades from the same parcel, which means a Kenyan peaberry is traceable to exactly the same cherry as the AA and AB alongside it. That is unusual — at many origins peaberry is pooled across parcels.

Kenyan PB also benefits from the density of the underlying coffee. Peaberries are denser than flat beans to begin with, and Kenyan Arabica is dense to begin with, so Kenyan PB sits at the higher end of what a roaster will encounter.

Roasting implications

• Higher bulk density — the same volume weighs more, which affects charge calculations.
• Rounded geometry — different surface-area-to-mass ratio, so heat enters differently from a flat bean.
• Bed behaviour — peaberries roll rather than presenting flat faces, which changes movement in the drum.
• Shape uniformity — an inherently uniform batch, which is an advantage on a tight profile.

Availability