Mundane Mystery: Where Do Coffee Beans Actually Come From?

Hot Coffee cup with Coffee beans on the wooden table and the coffee shop background

Mundane Mystery: Where Do Coffee Beans Actually Come From?

In celebration of today being National Coffee Day I decided to make today’s Mundane Mystery coffee related. Something I’ve always wondered myself about the coffee beans I grind in my kitchen every morning. Where do they actually grow? Are they a plant? A fruit? A tree? Just in the dirt? Lucky for you I got to the bottom of it. As well as a bonus question… what do they do with all the caffeine they take out of the coffee to make decaf?

Thanks to agiboo.com I learned that coffee beans actually grow on a bush. They are the pit of a berry which in fact makes them technically a fruit. Good to know! I honesty had no idea. There are two main varieties of coffee bean, green and red.

The red beans tend to have a nicer smell and are less acidic. These are used to produce lighter coffee blends. It’s also true that the longer the coffee bean is roasted the healthier it is for you.

When it comes to decaffeinated coffee (which just doesn’t make ANY sense to me whatsoever but I know there are decaf-ers reading this too) there is actually a chemical process where they have to take the caffeine out of the beans. Now what do they do with that extra caffeine you ask? Most of the time they sell it to Coca-Cola! Which is absolutely hilarious and a very smart idea.

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