Coffee Berries – Frequently Asked Questions

Vietnamese Coffee Exporter

Coffee Berries – Frequently Asked Questions: Coffee is often associated with a dark, fragrant drink with a bitter taste, including caffeine, and many people prefer the color of coffee as dark as possible. But if you look at coffee from a purely biological point of view, you’ll see an overall picture with more detail and color.

Coffee beans are not mere seeds. They are seeds from coffee berries. Coffee plants are also fruit trees. They have the same external fruit like berries. Coffee beans begin to be blue at a young age until they are ripe. They will darken and gradually turn red, yellow, or orange, depending on the variety.

Once harvested, the peel and stalks are removed and cleaned to retain the seeds. Coffee beans continue to be prepared, stored, and roasted – now they are the whole roasted coffee beans, you know. Learn about Coffee – Frequently Asked Questions with Helena! 

Now in your head, there will be many questions that come up: “Hey, if coffee is a fruit, why do we just drink coffee and not eat their whole fruit?” If that’s what you’re thinking, don’t worry, there are some compelling reasons we’ll explore together soon after.

Can you eat coffee or not?

As modern consumers, we must be accustomed to fresh and juicy fruits, often found in the farmers’ stalls at the supermarket. But nature doesn’t work that way. Not all fruits are ideal enough to make smoothies and salads.

We won’t realize this because most of the fruits we meet throughout our lives have been selected, crossed, and processed to be the perfect dishes. It sounds different from our ancestors!

Here’s an example of a banana – we only know they are from 7,000 – 10,000 years ago. In the wild banana, there are many seeds that our ancestors ignored, the reason why the coffee fruit has never been. As common as strawberries or acerola is with wild bananas, there is no benefit in eating them nutritionally.

When you try ripe coffee, you’ll realize they’re all shells and seeds (also known as green coffee). Their surfaces are glossy, with stalks attached to the sources. The fruit’s flesh is insignificant, with a layer of mucus that covers the nucleus.

In terms of flavor, I find mature coffee berries to be reasonably appealing; I wouldn’t compare them to ripe mangoes, but ripe coffee has a lovely flavor; it’s sweet while also evoking freshness. Imagine tasting the sweetness of watermelon and the sour taste of apricots.

Coffee Berries - Frequently Asked Questions
Coffee Berries – Frequently Asked Questions

The main problem here is that there isn’t much fruit meat to look for, but if you ask me if ripe coffee berries are edible, I’ll answer yes, and it doesn’t matter if you eat them at all. This has been done before by animals.

According to the papers, coffee was found after Ethiopian shepherd Kaldi noticed that his goats were hyperactive after consuming these berries by mistake. You may also be familiar with Kopi Luwak, a coffee consumed and discarded by Asian civets or mink coffee produced in Vietnam.

Caffeine Is Still the Most Important

The romance between people and coffee begins, not because of the taste of fruit, and the beauty of the harvest season, but because of the effects of stimulants. Caffeine is the natural protective mechanism of coffee plants against pests.

When you obtain green nuclei, their structure is still very dense. If you try to grind them, your blender will have serious problems. But if you grind roasted coffee, their design will be crunchier, and you’re easier to grind them out into powder.

Coffee Berries - Frequently Asked Questions
Coffee Berries – Frequently Asked Questions

Roasting coffee is the process of creating the authentic taste of coffee beans. Still, the first coffee roasters in history probably only see them as necessary to make a stimulant drink.

Now, when you are holding a cup of delicious specialty coffee, the taste is determined by many factors, farming conditions, varieties, and processing methods. You’ll be grateful that you’re enjoying years of research and synthesizing knowledge from coffee-using cultures around the world on how to make a good cup of coffee.

Cascara Is Like Juice Made From Coffee

If you’re still curious about the taste of ripe coffee without having the conditions to go on a farm, then you should try cascara. Cascara is a byproduct made from coffee. They are pretty popular on specialty coffee farms. After the coffee berries are cleaned, their shells are carefully dried.

The finished product is called “cascara tea” or “tea from the ripe coffee fruit shell.” Cascara is more like tea than coffee. It is sweet and refreshing but still has the taste of light coffee berries. It also has some caffeine-like black tea.

You can even eat the raisin variety if they are sourced from the manufacturer. Cascara is safe if the farm does not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides during cultivation.

Appendix – Frequently Asked Questions

Can I eat raw coffee?

“Yes, you can eat raw fruits, as they are fruit, but I recommend not trying too much.”

Can I eat coffee powder instead of drinking it?

“Of course, chewing roasted coffee beans and noticing caffeine stimulation is a good way, but coffee tastes better in liquid form.”

Is coffee a vegetable or fruit?

“Coffee has a sweet taste, so we consider it a fruit. It’s called a berry because it looks like a cherry when ripe. However, when the beans of coffee are roasted, they are called beans, so many people think they are vegetables, the term “bean” really confuses us a little.”

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