Bolivia Caranavi Aramayo Peaberry

This coffee is from a farm called Finca Rosita, in Bolivia's western Andean Mountain region of Caranavi. The farm was named after the matriarch, Rosita Angelica Aramayo, and continues to operate under the care of the Aramayo-Valverde family. The farm is 32 hectares in size, stretching from 1350 all the way up to 1750 meters above sea level. Most of the farm is planted in Catuaí, a highly productive dwarf variety common in South America that's a cross of Mundo Novo and Caturra. They also have newer plantings of Java, Typica, Pink Bourbon, and Gesha too (we will have a small amount of Gesha available very soon). We cupped several lots from the farm, and found this peaberry lot to be one of the more sweetness-forward of the group. Peaberries are small round beans that occur when only one embryo germinates inside the coffee cherry. Without a second seed, the bean forms into a round shape, instead of having one flat side. Every tree produces a small amount of peaberries (around 3% of the yield), and some mills separate them out using screening machinery in order to sell on their own. The Aramayo family have their own dry mill on the farm and are able to manage this type of quality separation themselves.

One thing to note is that this coffee doesn't produce a pronounced 1st Crack, especially on roasters that that have a slower ramp in heat, like Gene Cafe, Behmor, and Hot Top. It definitely 'pops', but not as strong and consistent as you'd expect from most wet process coffees. That said, judging by sight is relatively easy since the fracturing of 1st Crack is easy to see.