What is a peaberry?
A peaberry is a rare, round coffee bean that grows as a single seed where a coffee cherry normally holds two flat seeds.
A coffee cherry normally holds two seeds (flat beans). A peaberry is a cherry in which only one seed grew, and grew round.
Updated
The "only child" bean
The farm blog post “Lots of twins? A Ka’u legend” (Kayama LLC, in Japanese) likens the peaberry to an “only child” and the usual flat beans to “twins”. The same post notes that flat beans make up more than 95% of the harvest. Peaberries are the rest, a small number of beans.
Hawaii KAU Coffee sells the peaberry as “No1 Grade,” separately from Extra Fancy (No2 Grade).
Product details (NN DRINKS, as of September 15, 2026)
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Product name in the shop (Japanese) | 【送料無料】Hawaii KAU Coffee No1グレード【ピーベリー100g】 |
| Product code | A000000095 |
| Size | 100 g |
| Shop price | 5,980 yen |
| Shipping | Free shipping within Japan (shown as 送料無料 in the product name) |
| Origin | Kau Ocean Vista Coffee Estate, Ka'u district, Hawaii Island (100% Ka'u coffee) |
| Processing | Semi-washed process, sun-dried |
| Delivery | Within Japan only |
| Product page | https://www.nndrinks.com/c-item-detail?ic=A000000095Opens an external site |
Please check the product page (in Japanese) for the latest information on price, tax, shipping and stock. The shop ships within Japan only.
Taste
Ka’u coffee has a rich aroma, refined fruitiness and sweetness with little bitterness, moderate acidity and a soft body (What Is Ka’u Coffee?). Peaberry and Extra Fancy come from the same farm, the same natural farming and the same semi-washed process; the difference is the shape of the bean and the sorting.
How we recommend drinking it
Brew it in a French press
Our farm owner John is a French press person. His reason: a paper filter absorbs the oils that give coffee its aroma.
Best 3 to 5 days after roasting
By then the gas in the beans has escaped and the coffee brews with a clear taste.
Store at room temperature with the air pressed out
Coffee farmers usually keep beans in a zip-top bag with the air pressed out, at room temperature.
Buy Peaberry 100 g
A peaberry is a single seed that grew round
A coffee cherry normally holds two seeds. A peaberry is a cherry in which that seed grew as a single round bean. Because there are so few of them, they are treated as a rare bean.
Our peaberry is No1 Grade
These are 100% Ka’u coffee beans grown at Kau Ocean Vista Coffee Estate in the Ka’u district of Hawaii Island by farm owner John Ah San, with natural farming that does not rely on chemical fertilizer. After harvest they are processed with the semi-washed process, which leaves the sticky fruit pulp on the bean, and dried under the Hawaiian sun. We sort the peaberries out of these beans as “No1 Grade” and sell them in 100 g packs through the NN DRINKS online shop (ships within Japan only).
Not sure? Compare it with Extra Fancy
From the same farm and the same process, we also offer No2 Grade Extra Fancy (100 g and 1 kg), which differs in bean shape and sorting. The two grades are compared in a table on the Products page. Retailers, cafes, restaurants and importers: see our Wholesale & Import Inquiry.