Ethiopian Peaberry SCFCU by Blue Bottle Coffee Co.

Today, I'm brewing some terrific coffee from Ethiopia.  Blue Bottle Coffee, named one of the best coffee roasters in the United States in 2013, recently offered Ethiopian Peaberry from the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU) in 16oz bags. Now this offering combines two of my favorite things: Ethiopian coffee and nature's nuclear power plant known as the peaberry.

The bean only has one coffee cherry instead of the normal two so it's a compact little bugger filled with highly concentrated energy. Blue Bottle has light roasted these miniature coffee beans and not only do they pack an intense flavor, the coffee packs a wicked punch. Opening up the brown paper recyclable bag, bearing the simple Blue Bottle mark, my nose was met with a near tropical sweet melon aroma and that flavor transfered into the actual drink.

The coffee is very light but doesnt have the heavy citrus body that characterizes some Yirgacheffe coffee beans; something I am not the biggest fan of.  Blue Bottle's Ethiopian Peaberry doesn't emit the cherry tartness that I've noticed in several other Ethiopian offerings, but it does have a smattering of chocolate underlying the tropical taste. The transition from tropical flavors to cocoa as I worked through the coffee was really a fantastic combination that played off each other marvelously. The caffene punch in this coffee is stronger than an Iron Man comptetion.  It will keep you awake during the routine of a long workday and will leave you with a hankering for another cup.

It looks like Blue Bottle is no longer offering this coffee at the moment, but they do have other single origina selections from Africa that are no doubt excellent.