Coffee

Description:

The cherry is the name usually given to the fruit of the coffee tree. Botanists prefer to call it the "drupe". Green to begin with, the berries ripen over several months, becoming successively yellow, then red, garnet red, and finally almost black. The ideal time for harvesting is when the berries are red. Inside the drupe, protected by the "mesocarp" or pulp, lie two small beans separated by a groove. These must be extracted and roasted before they can be used for consumption.

Notes:

The coffee plant originated in Ethiopia, but it is now grown in many tropical climates around the world including Hawaii, the Caribbean, Central America and parts of South America, Asia and Africa. It is an evergreen shrub, or small tree, that blooms with small, white, fragrant flowers. After blooming, the coffee plant will bear small, oblong fruit called cherries. As they ripen, the cherries shift from green to yellow, and eventually bright red when ripe. Each cherry contains two seeds – these seeds are the beans that will eventually be picked, processed, and roasted. A coffee plant will begin to produce fruit after 3 – 5 years and will continue bearing fruit for 50 – 60 years. Arabica and Robusta are the two species of coffee plants most commonly grown for their beans.