Coffee is a part of our everyday lives, yet how many of us outside the coffee-producing countries have ever seen, or would even recognize, a coffee cherry?
The size of the fruit varies between varieties of coffee, but on the whole they are the size of a small grape. Unlike grapes, most of the volume of the fruit is provided by the central seeds, although there is a thin layer of fruit flesh under the skin.
All cherries start out green and develop deeper colours as the fruit matures. The skin is usually a deep red when ripe, though some trees have yellow fruit, and occasionally a cross between a yellow-fruiting tree and a red-fruiting tree will yield orange fruit. While fruit colour isn’t thought to influence yield, yellow-fruiting trees have often been avoided as it is harder to determine when the fruit is ripe. Red fruit starts green, goes through a yellow stage and then turns red. This makes ripeness much easier to identify when coffee is being picked by hand.
Ripeness is tied to the quantity of sugar in the fruit, which is vitally important when trying to grow delicious coffee. Generally speaking, the more sugar in the fruit the better. However, different producers harvest their cherries at different stages of ripeness. Some believe that a mixture of cherries at different stages of ripeness can add complexity to a coffee, though all the cherries should be properly ripe, and none of them overripe as they eventually develop an unpleasant flavour.
Coffee seeds are extracted from their silverskin and parchment to reveal the bean we grind and brew.
SWEET FRUITS
The flesh of the coffee fruit is surprisingly delicious when ripe, a pleasing honeydew melon sweetness, with a little refreshing acidity. The fruits are sometimes squeezed to make a drink, but even when ripe they are not particularly juicy, and you have to work to separate the flesh from the seeds.
THE SEED
The seed, or coffee bean, is made up of several layers, most of which will be removed during processing, leaving behind the bean we grind and brew. The seed has a protective outer layer, called the parchment, then a thinner layer wrapped around it, called the silverskin.
Most coffee cherries contain two seeds, which face each other inside the berry, becoming flattened along one side as they develop. Occasionally, only one seed inside a berry will germinate and grow and these are known as peaberries. Instead of having a flattened surface on one side, these seeds are rounded and make up around five per cent of the crop. These peaberries are usually separated from the rest of the crop and some people believe that they have particularly desirable qualities or that they roast in a different way to the flattened beans.