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Coffee bean
 
 
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A coffee bean is the seed of the coffee plant
Coffea

Coffea is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs or small trees, native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia....
 (the pit
Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovary....
 inside the red or purple fruit). The fruits, coffee cherries or coffee berries, most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together. Coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm
Endosperm

Endosperm is the tissue produced in the seeds of most flowering plants around the time of fertilization. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain Vegetable oils and protein....
 that contains 0.8 - 2.5 % caffeine
Caffeine

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic. Caffeine was discovered by a German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, in 1819....
, which is one of the main reasons the plants are cultivated. As coffee
Coffee

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the Coffea. Caffeinated coffee has a stimulating effect in humans....
 is one of the world's most widely consumed beverages, coffee beans are a major cash crop
Cash crop

In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for money.The term is used to differentiate from Subsistence agriculture, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family....
, and an important export
Export

Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic Production theory basics. It is a good that is sent to another country for sale....
 product for some countries.

name derives from the Arabic language
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 ( qahwa - "coffee" and bunn - "berry").






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Encyclopedia


A coffee bean is the seed of the coffee plant
Coffea

Coffea is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs or small trees, native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia....
 (the pit
Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovary....
 inside the red or purple fruit). The fruits, coffee cherries or coffee berries, most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together. Coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm
Endosperm

Endosperm is the tissue produced in the seeds of most flowering plants around the time of fertilization. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain Vegetable oils and protein....
 that contains 0.8 - 2.5 % caffeine
Caffeine

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic. Caffeine was discovered by a German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, in 1819....
, which is one of the main reasons the plants are cultivated. As coffee
Coffee

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the Coffea. Caffeinated coffee has a stimulating effect in humans....
 is one of the world's most widely consumed beverages, coffee beans are a major cash crop
Cash crop

In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for money.The term is used to differentiate from Subsistence agriculture, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family....
, and an important export
Export

Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic Production theory basics. It is a good that is sent to another country for sale....
 product for some countries.

Etymology

The name derives from the Arabic language
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 ( qahwa - "coffee" and bunn - "berry"). The name bean
Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genus of the Family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed.The whole young pods of bean plants, if picked before the pods ripen and dry, can be tender enough to eat whole, whether cooked or raw....
 is not botanically
Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
 accurate as the Coffee plant is not a member of the Fabaceae
Fabaceae

Fabaceae or Leguminosae is a large and economically important family of flowering plants, which is commonly known as the legume family, pea family, bean family or pulse family....
 family.

Types

Species of coffee plant include Coffea arabica, Coffea benghalensis, Coffea canephora, Coffea congensis, Coffea excelsa, Coffea gallienii, Coffea bonnieri, Coffea mogeneti, Coffea liberica, and Coffea stenophylla. The seeds of different species produce coffee
Coffee

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the Coffea. Caffeinated coffee has a stimulating effect in humans....
 with slightly different characteristics.

Coffea arabica accounts for about 75% of the world's coffee trade, while Coffea canephora (syn. Coffea robusta) is cultivated where Coffea arabica does not thrive, and Coffea liberica and Coffea excelsa are grown in limited areas.

In a crop of coffee, a small percentage of cherries contain a single bean, instead of the usual two. This is called a peaberry
Peaberry

File:Peaberry coffee beans, close up.jpgPeaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean. Normally the fruit of the Coffea develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry, but sometimes only one of the two seeds gets fertilized so there is nothing to flatten it....
.

Processing

Coffee beans are removed from the coffee cherries or fruit, which is either discarded as waste or used as fertilizer.

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