The Fruit
Coffee berries, the fruit of the coffee tree, are red and reach 1-2 cm. Like
cherries, they are green and later, when ripe, red. One coffee tree produces
less than one kilogram of raw coffee per year. Because of the similarities
shared with cherries, they are sometimes referred to as „coffee cherries“.
The fruits are sweetish and sticky, but inedible. The ripe fruits smell like
orange or jasmine flowers.
The Coffee Bean
What we think of as coffee are really the seeds of the coffee cherries. Each
berry contains two coffee beans, although many only one. When only one bean
is present, the cherries are round, and it is called „pearl coffee“.
Cherries with three beans have also been found. In nature, the berries fall
to the ground and they eventually sprout.
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