Did You Know Coffee Isn’t Really a Bean?
January 6th marks National Bean Day! Ok, ok… we admit it – while it’s a fun day to recognize one of the world’s earliest food crops, National Bean Day isn’t a “real” holiday by most of our standards. We don’t think anyone’s getting the day off to celebrate beans! But National Bean Day is a great excuse for us to share a little known fact about coffee beans: they’re not really beans at all!
While they do look a lot like beans, coffee “beans” are actually the seed, or pit, of the fruit that grows on coffee trees. Coffee trees grow small, bright red fruit called coffee cherries. The cherries aren’t great for snacking, since they’re mostly skin and seeds, but they’re lightly sweet and packed with antioxidants! The skin and pulp of the cherry is sometimes dried out to make cascara – a coffee cherry tea. When you remove the outer layers of the cherry, you’ll reveal two seeds. In about 5% of coffee cherries, you’ll only find one seed – that’s called a peaberry! Peaberries are often sorted out and sold separately, prized for their sweet flavor.
So, even though Cameron’s Coffee is not technically included in National Bean Day, we’re still going to pour ourselves a big mug of coffee and celebrate today. Cheers!
