I found out most coffee beans are actually seeds from a fruit

I was reading a book about coffee farming in Colombia and it mentioned that coffee 'beans' are really the pits of a cherry-like fruit. They have to remove the fruit pulp to get to the green seed inside. I always pictured them growing in pods like peanuts. Has anyone else had their basic coffee knowledge flipped like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

wade_kelly776d ago

The coffee cherry thing blew my mind a few years back. It's funny how we just accept stuff without knowing where it comes from. Like vanilla coming from an orchid pod, or cinnamon being tree bark. We're all just walking around clueless about half the things we use every day. Makes you wonder what else we've got totally wrong.

shane_bell7d ago

My whole life I thought coffee grew in little burlap sacks. Now you're telling me it's a fruit pit? Next you'll say chocolate doesn't come from brown cows. I guess I need to go apologize to my barista for all my dumb questions.

hannahcraig6d agoOG Member

Actually, chocolate comes from the seeds inside a pod that grows on a tree. The brown cow thing is just a joke people tell. Coffee beans are the pits from inside a coffee cherry, so you were close on that one. It's wild how processed everything gets before it hits the store. Your barista has probably heard way weirder stuff than that, trust me.

aaron8806d ago

That bit about how processed everything gets really hits home. I see it all the time with customers who don't know basic stuff, like what kind of paint goes on wood versus metal. We're just so far removed from how things are actually made or what they're for.