What Are Green Coffee Beans?

Coffee is a fruit. Green coffee beans are the raw, unroasted seeds of coffee cherries that have been separated or “processed.” All of a coffee’s taste and flavor potential is held within this green seed. In other words, green coffee will be unique for various factors such as where it’s from, how high up a mountain it’s grown, when it’s harvested, and how it’s processed. These things affect the inherent flavors in green coffee and what we are getting in a cup. This potential is ultimately unleashed through roasting the green coffee.

Once the cherries are harvested from coffee trees, they are processed in several ways, depending on the coffee’s origin. There are 2 most common approaches to processing are (1) washed and (2) dried (or naturally-processed). The end result of each is that the fruit of the coffee cherry is stripped away, leaving only the green coffee. Each method of processing contributes to the final taste you’ll experience when you drink it. But before it’s enjoyed in a cup of coffee, the beans have to be roasted at places like our local roasting facility here in Calgary. Why roast coffee beans? Because green coffee beans are undrinkable; roasting green coffee beans is what brings the aroma and flavor that we associate with the coffee drink.