Description
Our first Indian Peaberry! Peaberries are rounded beans, no flat side. Although in most peaberry screens you will still find some flat beans. Every coffee has some peaberries but with certain producers they use special vibrating tables separate out the peaberries and offer them as a unique variant. This is still traditional tasting Indian coffee, premium washed processed.
The Hindi word ‘Ratnagiri’ translates literally to ‘Pearl Mountain’, a reference to the dense silver oak canopy which crowns this farm. Ratnagiri was established in 1920 and is owned and operated by Ashok Patre, having been passed down from Grandfather, to father to son. Ashok Patre is a progressive. Well-travelled and bursting with initiative, he has drawn inspiration from elsewhere to step beyond the boundaries of traditional Indian coffee cultivation and processing. Brix levels are tested before harvesting. Processing includes natural, honey and fermentation experiments alongside the traditional washed.
For all intents and purposes Pearl Mountain Estate is an organic/biodynamic farm and also maintains official Rainforest Alliance Certification. Quarterly soil tests and organic corrections to soil are applied. Ionic seawater and sea weed extract are applied to improve plant immunity and sugar levels of the fruit. The estate is a lush shaded environment with 3 stories of shade. It is home to over 48 recorded bird populations, monkeys, leopards, wild boar, tigers, mongoose and – on occasion – elephants. The rich biodiversity demands that Ashok and his family have an approach to farming which places ecology and harmony with the environment at the forefront. This is a world class farm, truly one of the leading in India and a great example of the farmer working together to engineer excellence.
Tasting Notes: A great cup from light to dark. Medium to full bodied, with medium to low acidity. Lighter roasts are sweet and clean, hints of citric that will pull some balance with a nutty/caramel/spice like darker tone. A bit thicker and more neutral tasting than the regular flat bean. Does have some crisp acidity at the light to medium roast points. Medium roasts are a bit fuller bodied and smoother: cuts out the citric tones. A bit more spice noticeable in the cup making its Indian roots more apparent. Dark roasts are much bolder and pronounce the spice and chocolate tones, tasting a bit more like the Mysore Nuggets.
Roasting Notes: Easy to roast, medium chaff levels. Peaberries being a little denser and rounded, often good to drop batch size a pinch in air roasters: tends to get a little better rotation. A fun one to play around with roast level. Good cup but quite different from light to dark. What separates these beans from traditional Indian coffees is how clean it is at light/medium roasts, along with a bit of jazzy acidity and slight fruitiness. To show it best, we recommend sticking before 2nd crack. Quite tasty still at darker roasts but will kill some of the flavor depth and turn it more classic tasting. Good to get some extra setup time on them especially at lighter roast points
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