Every coffee drinker on Earth calls them beans, but coffee beans aren't beans at all. They're seeds. Specifically, they're the pits inside a small, bright red fruit called a coffee cherry.

Botanically speaking, true beans grow in pods on legume plants—think kidney beans, black beans, soybeans. Coffee plants produce something completely different: drupes. These are fleshy fruits with a hard pit inside, just like peaches, plums, or cherries (hence the name coffee cherry).

Inside the Cherry

Each coffee cherry typically contains two seeds nestled face-to-face, flat sides together. These are what we roast, grind, and brew. When a cherry has only one seed, it's called a peaberry—rounder and sometimes more prized by coffee enthusiasts.

The fruit itself is sweet and edible. Some coffee-growing regions make cascara tea from the dried cherry skins, which tastes fruity and slightly floral—nothing like coffee. The flesh gets removed during processing, and those naked seeds head off to become your morning caffeine fix.

Why We Call Them Beans

The name stuck because roasted coffee seeds look like beans. When European traders first encountered coffee in Ethiopia and Yemen centuries ago, they needed a familiar term. "Bean" was close enough in shape and size, so it stuck. By the time botanists clarified the difference, millions of people were already ordering their beans by the pound.

Coffee comes from two main species: Arabica and Robusta. Both grow as shrubs or small trees in tropical climates, producing those red (sometimes yellow) cherries about 6-9 months after flowering. Harvesters pick them when ripe, process out the fruit, and what remains are those misnamed beans.

The Bigger Picture

This quirk highlights how common names often mislead us botanically. Strawberries aren't berries (they're accessory fruits), peanuts aren't nuts (they're legumes), and now coffee beans aren't beans (they're fruit pits). Language evolves based on appearance and habit, not scientific accuracy.

So next time you're grinding your morning coffee, remember: you're pulverizing fruit seeds. Somewhere, a botanist smiles knowingly into their mug.

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