Coffee bean

A coffee bean is a seed from the Coffea plant and the source for coffee. This fruit is often referred to as a coffee cherry, but unlike the cherry, which usually contains a single pit, it is a berry with most commonly two seeds with their flat sides together. Even though the seeds are not technically beans, they are referred to as such because of their resemblance to true beans. A fraction of coffee cherries contain a single seed, called a "peaberry". Peaberries make up only around 10% to 15% of all coffee beans. It is a fairly common belief that they have more flavour than normal coffee beans. Like Brazil nuts (a seed) and white rice, coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm.

The two most economically important varieties of coffee plants are the arabica and the robusta; approximately 60% of the coffee produced worldwide is arabica and some 40% is robusta.^{[citation needed]} Arabica beans consist of 0.8–1.4% caffeine and robusta beans consist of 1.7–4.0% caffeine. As coffee is one of the world's most widely consumed beverages, coffee beans are a major cash crop and an important export product, accounting for over 50% of some developing nations' foreign exchange earnings. The global coffee industry is valued at $495.50 billion^{[citation needed]}, as of 2023; the largest producer of coffee and coffee beans is Brazil. Other main exporters of coffee beans are Colombia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia.

Brazil produces about 45% of the world's total coffee exports.

Coffee plants grow within a defined area between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, termed the bean belt or coffee belt.

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the European languages generally appear to have adopted the name from Turkish kahveh, about 1600, perhaps through Italian caffè. Arab qahwah, in Turkish pronounced kahveh, the name of the infusion or beverage; said by Arab lexicographers to have originally meant "wine" or some type of wine, and to be a derivative of a verb-root qahiya "to have no appetite". Another common theory is that the name derives from Kaffa Province, Ethiopia, where the species may have originated.

The coffee tree averages from 5–10 m (16–33 ft) in height. As the tree gets older, it produces less fruit and slowly loses any pest- and disease-resistance. The coffee beans come from the seeds which contained in fruits from trees and shrubs naturally grown in African forests. Humans produce coffee by roasting, grinding and brewing the green coffee beans.

Coffee plants are often grown in rows spaced apart depending on the desired density chosen by the farmer. Some farmers plant other trees, such as shade trees or other cash-crop trees, such as orange trees around them or plant the coffee on the sides of hills, because they need specific conditions to flourish. Ideally, Arabica coffee beans are grown at temperatures between 15 and 24 °C (59 and 75 °F) and Robusta between 24 and 30 °C (75 and 86 °F) and receive between 500 and 3,000 mm (20 and 118 in) of rainfall per year. More rain is needed at the beginning of the season when the fruit is developing and less later in the season as it ripens.

Two lesser known species grown for consumption are Coffea liberica and Coffea racemosa.