Caribou Coffee La Minita Peaberry review

August 26, 9:51 AMLA Coffee ExaminerKim Winklhofer

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 La Minita ("little mine") Peaberry

Peaberry coffee beans have come full circle. Once looked upon as inferior and discarded, they are now regarded as premium stuff--the Cinderella of coffee beans.

But perhaps you’ve not heard of peaberry coffee. That's okay. Neither had I, until I noticed it's consistently higher price and decided to find out more.

My investigation yielded an article, “The Truth about Peaberry Coffee,” and that article, in turn, got the attention of the folks at Caribou Coffee who wanted to send me a sample of their La Minita Peaberry. Having been born and raised in California, I was only vaguely aware of the existence of Caribou Coffee, apparently a strong presence back East. I accepted their offer. I had not tasted peaberry before, and this would save me the trouble of handpicking peaberries out of a few pounds of unsorted beans. (That likely wouldn’t have been a true reckoning of peaberry coffee anyway, since no special attention was paid to the different roasting requirements they demand.)

The beans arrived nestled in raffia and accompanied by promotional materials which I eagerly perused. Caribou described their La Minita Peaberry as having “flavorful notes of milk chocolate with a sugary sweetness and a hint of maraschino cherry.” Wow. Sounded delish. They at least had some excellent copywriters there at Caribou.

I learned that “Of 100 pounds of cherries that enter the milling process, only about 23 pounds are chosen to become La Minita coffee.” Impressive. Also impressive was the fact that they do indeed hand-sort to ensure “that only the most flavorful beans make the leap from an already premium crop to Caribou Coffee’s cups.”

So, enough with the preliminaries. On to the main event.

Upon opening the package of beans, of course, my eyes rolled back in my head. There’s nothing like that first heady whiff of roasted coffee beans. Like the genie in the lamp, it’s as if the aroma has been patiently waiting for you to release it, and when you do, whoa, Nellie. If you play your cards right, truly wonderful things are in store for you. The rich and decadent glory that you smell can be tasted as well; you have only to prepare it correctly.

But I digress.

After recovering from the obligatory olfactory orgasm, I examined the beans and a smile spread across my face. The peaberries are just so darned cute, like the chubby little cheeks of babies.

Unfortunately, I prefer my coffee more darkly roasted, with that lovely oily sheen on the beans, and these were much lighter than my usual. Undaunted, I brewed myself a cup.

Because I don’t have a very sophisticated coffee palate, I don’t use the proper vocabulary of real cuppers (coffee tasters with highly sensitive tongues and noses), so my tendency is more toward describing the experience rather than the specific flavors. La Minita is, as I said, a light roast, which is not (forgive the turn of phrase) my cup of tea. However, it brought to mind someone whistling, swiftly spinning pinwheels—the kind you get at carnivals, and little girls with daisies in their hair cavorting in the sunshine. So, if you like a cleaner, more brilliant bite to your brew, get yourself some of Caribou’s La Minita Peaberry. Personally, I’ll stick to my oily and powerful dark roasts.

There are no Caribou Coffee stores in California, so Angelenos will have to get them online. A pound will run you about 18 bucks.

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Peaberry beans in hand photo/Kim Winklhofer
Pinwheel photo/John-Morgan

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