What Exactly Is A Coffee Cherry? Potential Health Benefits Of This Underrated Fruit

The ever-ubiquitous roasted coffee bean might be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about café. But what about its small berries?

Coffee beans are actually the seeds of the plant, housed inside a green or red fruit (depending on the ripeness), referred to as a coffee cherry, berry, or drupe. Usually discarded during the coffee-making process, these often-overlooked fleshy fruits have recently gained more popularity in the wellness and sustainability worlds—and for good reason. 

You might recognize a coffee tree by the grape-like fruits that grow in clusters along its branches. These shiny, juicy berries take almost a year to mature after flowering and another five before reaching their peak. Interestingly, coffee trees, which can live up to 100 years, grow in a perpetual cycle—which means you can find coffee flowers, along with green and ripe berries, on a single plant. 

As part of the Rubiaceae family, coffee berries' outer skin is called the exocarp. This layer protects its seeds as it grows by preventing bugs or other species from eating the fruit. Then comes the mesocarp (a thin film of flesh), the parenchyma (a slimy layer), and finally, the seeds covered in a parchment-resembling case called the endocarp. 

The two seeds (or beans) lie juxtaposed, each clothed individually by another thin sheath called the spermoderm, or silver skin, a group of sclerenchyma cells that firmly adhere to the beans. Eventually, during the roasting process, these skins fall off and become the so-called chaff. A small percentage of coffee berries will grow just one seed, often referred to as a peaberry, which is thought to produce sweeter-tasting coffee. 

"The berries are ready to be harvested when they are ripe and tomato-red," says Ella Davar, R.D., CDN, CHC. "Ripe red berries are collected and pulped, and the mucilage is removed by fermentation."

The coffee cherry pulp is touted for its significant polyphenol and antioxidant2 content, which may help mitigate chronic disease and neutralize free radicals.

Cascara ("husk" in Spanish) tea results from boiling the coffee fruit's discarded skins into a subtly floral, cinnamon-tasting tea. Because it's brewed from dried fruit, cascara is closer to an herbal, tisane-like tea than brewed coffee. 

From an easy, homemade cascara tea recipe to extracts and powders—coffee cherry products are generally available at most health markets or drugstores. You might also find them in beauty products, essential oils, or beverage blends—to name a few.