h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Although the popular term is "coffee beans", coffee does not come from a bean. What we refer to as a "bean" is actually the seed of a small berry about 1/2 inch in diameter which turns bright red when ripe and ready to pick. Coffee trees are short and wide, grow best on hillsides, and are normally planted beneath much taller trees such as the breadfruit tree.

Once the berries turn red, they are picked and processed to remove the skin and meaty part of the berry. The seeds are then dried (traditionally on burlap sacks in bright sunlight) and ground into powder. Raw coffee seeds when dry are a light tan in color. I think the reason the coffee "beans" purchased locally are dark brown is because commercially processed coffee is dried by roasting the seeds in a heat producing mechanism.

And coffee was *brought* to the Americas. Its origin is somewhere in the Africa/Arabia area, from where it made its way to South-East Asia. The latest coffee producer to enter the scene is Vietnam.

The reason that the beans you buy from a shop are dark in colour is actually because they are rtoasted after drying, the degree of roasting actually affects the strength o9f the flavour with a lighter roast producing a mild flavour and a dark roast producing a stronger flavour, espresso is usually the darkest roast with the beans being almost black. So if you like your coffee strong buy a darker roast....