Arabica Peaberry

Peaberry is the name applied to the round coffee beans. The development of these round beans has been attributed to the abortion of one of the two ovules in the ovary, thus making extra space available to the single developing seed.

The Spanish name for this is caracolillo, meaning “little snail,” because of its more rounded shape.
Interestingly, specific regions like Brazil, Tanzania, Kenya, and Kona tend to produce more peaberry since they have the infrastructure in place to find and separate the peaberries from the normal beans.

Once the coffee is sorted and processed, peaberry coffee is treated in the same way as a normal bean. Like all beans, a roaster will roast a test batch or two to determine the optimal roasting procedure to achieve the best results for the bean.
Some coffee roasters say that peaberry coffees are easier to roast because their rounder shape lets them roast more easily than their flat-sided cousins.

Why is Peaberry so Expensive?
Peaberry is so expensive because of the hand sorting process required to separate the peaberries from the standard beans. Typically, no more than 5-10% of any coffee crop consists of peaberries, and selecting these out takes time, which adds to the cost.