Coffee cherry

A coffee cherry is the round, fleshy fruit of the coffee plant, inside of which the familiar coffee beans develop. While it remains hard and green for months, it turns vibrant red, yellow, or orange upon ripening, closely resembling a common sweet cherry. In the specialty coffee world, only the perfectly ripe fruit is picked, as its pulp is then packed with natural sugars that will later define the sweet tasting notes in your cup. After harvesting, the farmer's work on the plantation focuses on processing, which is the careful separation of the hard seeds from the outer fruit layers. Interestingly, the dried skins of the cherry are rarely wasted; they can be steeped to create a delicious, tea-like fruit infusion called cascara.