From Coffee Cherry to Cup: The Life Cycle of Coffee
Most of us know coffee as the roasted beans we grind each morning. But long before coffee reaches a roaster, grinder, or brewer, it begins as something completely different: the seed of a fruit growing on a coffee plant.
At Eldorado Coffee Roasters, we spend every day roasting coffee from origins around the world. But recently, we have had the opportunity to watch another part of the coffee story unfold right in front of us.
One of our own coffee plants produced coffee cherries — and from those cherries, a new generation of coffee plants is beginning to grow.
It is a perfect reminder that every cup of coffee has a much longer journey than most people realize.
Coffee Begins With a Plant
Coffee grows on flowering plants belonging to the Coffea genus.
As a coffee plant matures, it produces small white flowers. After pollination, those flowers eventually develop into fruit known as coffee cherries.
The cherries typically begin green and gradually ripen, commonly becoming deep red when mature.
Inside each cherry are usually two seeds.
Those seeds are what we eventually call coffee beans.
So despite the familiar name, a coffee bean isn’t technically a bean at all — it is the seed of the coffee fruit.
That tiny seed contains the potential for two completely different journeys.
It can be processed, roasted and brewed into coffee.
Or, under the right conditions, it can be planted and become an entirely new coffee plant.
From Coffee Cherry to Coffee Seed
Once coffee cherries reach maturity, they are harvested.
Before the seeds can eventually be roasted, the fruit surrounding them must be removed and the coffee must be processed and dried.
Different coffee-producing regions use different processing methods, and those methods can influence the character of the finished coffee.
Three of the best-known approaches are:
Washed processing — the fruit is removed and the coffee is fermented and washed before drying.
Natural processing — the entire coffee cherry dries with the seed still inside before the dried fruit is removed.
Honey processing — some of the fruit’s sticky mucilage remains around the seed while it dries.
After processing and drying, the coffee exists in the form that roasters refer to as green coffee.
These pale, dense seeds look and smell very different from the dark, aromatic roasted coffee most people recognize.
But What Happens If You Plant the Seed?
This is where our own coffee plant at Eldorado made the story especially interesting.
Instead of following the path toward roasting, seeds can also begin the coffee-growing cycle again.
Under the right conditions, the seed germinates.
First, a small root begins developing below the soil. A shoot then emerges upward as the young plant searches for light.
Eventually, the first leaves appear.
That is exactly the stage we have been watching with our new coffee seedlings.
Seeing these tiny plants growing beside the mature plant that produced their cherries creates a remarkable visual representation of the entire coffee life cycle.
One plant produces fruit.
Inside that fruit is a seed.
And inside that seed is the possibility of another coffee plant.
A Coffee Plant Takes Time
Coffee is not an instant crop.
A newly germinated coffee seedling needs years of growth before it becomes mature enough to produce meaningful quantities of coffee cherries.
During that time, growing conditions matter enormously.
Altitude, temperature, rainfall, sunlight, soil composition and agricultural practices all contribute to the development of the plant and ultimately influence the coffee it produces.
This is one reason coffee from different parts of the world can taste so different.
A coffee grown in Ethiopia may express completely different characteristics from one grown in Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala or Kenya.
For coffee drinkers interested in experiencing those differences, our Single Origin Coffee collection offers coffees from individual origins around the world.
From the Farm to Green Coffee
Once mature coffee cherries are harvested and processed at origin, the resulting green coffee begins another journey.
Green coffee is sorted, prepared and shipped from coffee-producing countries to roasters around the world.
At this point, the seeds still haven’t developed the flavor and aroma we associate with a freshly brewed cup.
That transformation happens during roasting.
Roasting Changes Everything
Roasting is one of the most dramatic stages in coffee’s journey.
When green coffee enters the roaster, heat begins a complex series of physical and chemical changes.
The beans lose moisture.
They expand.
Their color progresses from green to yellow, then brown.
Aromas begin developing.
Acids, sugars and hundreds of aromatic compounds interact to create the flavors that ultimately appear in the cup.
How the coffee is roasted has an enormous influence on the finished result.
A lighter roast may preserve more of a coffee’s delicate origin characteristics.
A darker roast can emphasize deeper roasted flavors, body and intensity.
The goal isn’t simply to make coffee darker.
The goal is to develop the coffee in a way that brings out the characteristics the roaster wants to emphasize.
You can learn more about how we approach this process on our Eldorado Coffee Roasting page.
Roasted in Queens, New York
At Eldorado Coffee Roasters, the roasting stage of this journey happens right here in Queens, New York.
We source Arabica and Robusta coffees from growing regions around the world and roast and package coffee at our New York facility.
Since 1980, coffee has been at the center of what we do.
The little coffee plants growing in our facility are therefore especially meaningful.
We normally encounter coffee after farmers have completed the difficult work of growing, harvesting and processing it.
Watching a coffee plant actually produce cherries — and then watching a new generation begin growing from those seeds — brings the beginning of the process much closer to home.
Learn more about our story on the About Eldorado Coffee Roasters page.
Why Origin Matters So Much
When you understand how coffee grows, the idea of origin starts to make much more sense.
Coffee isn’t simply a commodity that tastes the same everywhere.
Its environment matters.
Country matters.
Region matters.
Altitude matters.
Variety matters.
Processing matters.
And once the coffee reaches the roaster, roasting matters.
All of these factors eventually meet inside the cup.
That is one of the reasons we created our broader Specialty Coffee collection, bringing together single origin coffees, crafted blends, and organic and fair trade selections.
Each coffee tells a slightly different part of the story.
From Green Coffee to the Cup
After roasting, coffee enters the part of the journey most consumers know best.
The roasted beans are packaged.
The coffee is ground according to the brewing method.
Water extracts soluble compounds from the ground coffee.
And finally, after years of growing and an extraordinary chain of work involving farmers, processors, exporters, importers, roasters and brewers, coffee reaches the cup.
The brewing itself might take only a few minutes.
The journey behind it can take years.
Our Coffee Plant Brought the Journey to Life
There is something special about seeing the coffee cycle happen in person.
A mature coffee plant.
Coffee cherries.
Seeds.
Tiny new seedlings emerging from the soil.
Then looking across our roasting operation and realizing that the green coffee we roast every day began its life in essentially the same way somewhere else in the world.
For us, these new plants are more than decorations.
They are a small living reminder of where our work begins.
Before the roasting.
Before the grinding.
Before the brewing.
Before the cup.
There was a seed.
Every Cup Has a Story
The next time you make coffee, take a moment to think about everything that happened before it reached you.
A seed was planted.
A coffee plant grew.
Flowers appeared.
Cherries developed and ripened.
Someone harvested them.
The coffee was processed and dried.
The green seeds traveled from their country of origin.
A roaster transformed them.
And finally, you brewed them.
From coffee cherry to cup, coffee is an extraordinary journey.
And here at Eldorado Coffee Roasters, we’re fortunate enough to see a little more of that journey happening right in front of us.
Explore coffees from growing regions around the world in our Single Origin Coffee collection, discover our complete Specialty Coffee collection, or continue learning at our Coffee Resources center.
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Coffee begins long before the roaster. Follow the fascinating journey from coffee cherry and seed to green coffee, roasting and the finished cup — including a look at a new generation of coffee plants growing at Eldorado Coffee Roasters.
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Coffee plant and young coffee seedlings growing at Eldorado Coffee Roasters
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