Coffee bean Coffee bean A coffee bean is a seed of the coffee plant and the source for coffee. It is the pit inside the red or purple fruit often referred to as a cherry. Just like ordinary cherries, the coffee fruit is also a so-called stone fruit. Even though the coffee beans are seeds, they are referred to as "beans" because of their resemblance to true beans. The fruits – coffee cherries or coffee berries – most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together. A small percentage of cherries contain a single seed, instead of the usual two. This
Coffee bean beans are a major cash crop and an important export product, counting for over 50% of some developing nations' foreign exchange earnings. According to popular legend, the coffee plant was discovered in Ethiopia by a goatherd named Kaldi. South America is now responsible for about 45% of the world's total coffee exports. Most of this coffee is grown in Brazil. The United States imports more coffee than any other nation. The per capita consumption of coffee in the United States in 2011 was 4.24 kg (9 lbs), and the value of coffee imported exceeded $8 billion. As of 2015, Americans