Tanzanian Peaberry Coffee Review

There is a certain peace in preparing coffee from green beans. It forces you to slow down and to be more dialled into life’s paces. Green beans are about 3 times cheaper to buy and can last years in a cool environment. After roasting you get about a week of full flavour, and after 2 months its ready to be sold at your local grocery store.

Overall, doing things by hand taught me that you can control bitterness by slowing things down. Slower roasting and slower brewing are you two main levers here.

Roasting

A clean cast iron skillet is my go-to because the cooking temperature to roast these beans is about twice boiling. Teflon melts at 350°C and is cancerous so watch out for that.

If the skillet has been previously used, then you would most likely be infusing other flavours into the coffee — like cooking oil.

I recommend having a dedicated pan for this. The upshot is that with the oils from the coffee, this feels like a great way to season a pan :)

In all, this takes about 5-10 minutes, and for this particular bean we need to let it sit overnight in open air or it tastes bitter.

After the roast, you will need to sift the chaff from the bean. This is easy and fun.

Hand Grinding

This Hario hand grinder, like all hand grinders, is not very functional. Most of the energy is spent trying to hold this grinder in place as the gears catch on the beans and jerk the whole thing around in random directions. The rounded base also helps in its purpose of pissing you right off.

In all this is a 15-30 minute job. I appreciate the exercise, and the surprising amount of difficulty it takes to be efficient makes this entire process really involving and interesting.

Post grind, this is a beautiful piece that features an air-tight container and a cork stopper. The grind consistency for a fine grind is also pretty good.

‘Pour Over’

Hario has best-in-class filters and drippers. Fine grinds are the only way to go for pour over, and making a cup of coffee takes 10 minutes of your attention here.

Closing notes

This coffee is strong, smooth and is an easy drinker for city slickers. It is consistent with other coffees in its region and would not stand out in any way. I think this would also make it a great iced coffee.

I like it. I would not buy again.