Did You Know Coffee Is a Fruit?

Here’s a coffee fact that still feels slightly strange to me:

Coffee is a fruit.

The coffee beans we obsess over aren’t actually beans. They’re the seeds found inside the fruit of the coffee plant, commonly called coffee cherries.

The cherries grow on coffee plants and usually turn red, yellow, or orange when they ripen. Inside each cherry are typically two seeds, which are processed, roasted and eventually ground into the coffee sitting in our cups.

So technically, when I’m drinking my morning coffee, I’m drinking the roasted seeds of a fruit.

Not exactly the five-a-day serving I was hoping for.

What’s even more interesting is that what happens to the coffee cherry after it’s picked can affect the flavour of the final cup. The processing, roasting and brewing all play a role in how those little seeds become the coffee we drink. You can learn more about that journey in this guide to coffee beans and brewing at home.

We call them beans, we treat them like a serious beverage, and yet they started life as fruit.

Coffee really does have layers. Literally.