Coffee Beans Stock Photo

A coffee bean is a seed of the coffee plant, and is the source for coffee. It is the pit inside the red or purple fruit often referred to as a cherry. Even though they 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 is called a peaberry. The peaberry is more unusual occurring only between 10 and 15 percent of the time, and its a fairly common (yet scientifically unproven) belief that they have more flavour than normal coffee beans