Here’s What You Probably Didn’t Know About Coffee

2. Coffee is a fruit

The coffee “beans” that we use are actually seeds. More accurately, they are the pits of a stone fruit that resembles a cherry. Grown on bushes, coffee cherries contain two seeds, positioned with the flat sides together. About 10-15% of coffee cherries have only one seed, which is called a peaberry. It’s commonly believed that peaberry seeds have more flavor, though there’s no real proof of this claim.

But what happens to the cherry when its seed is extracted? Unfortunately, up to 46 billion pounds of them are simply thrown away.