Coffee bean

Coffee beans
Roasted coffee beans
Region of originHorn of Africa[1] and South Arabia[2]

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.[3]

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. Arabica beans consist of 0.8–1.4% caffeine and robusta beans consist of 1.7–4.0% caffeine.[4] 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.[5] The global coffee industry is valued at $495.50 billion, as of 2023; the largest producer of coffee and coffee beans is Brazil. Other main exporters of coffee beans are Colombia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia.

  1. ^ Souza, Richard M. (2008) Plant-Parasitic Nematodes of Coffee. Springer. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4020-8720-2
  2. ^ Weinberg, Bennett Alan; Bealer, Bonnie K. (2001). The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug. New York: Routledge. p. 3–4. ISBN 978-0-415-92722-2. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  3. ^ "Arabica and Robusta Coffee Plant". Coffee Research Institute. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  4. ^ "Botanical Aspects". International Coffee Organization. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  5. ^ "The Story of Coffee". International Coffee Organization. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.