Coffee is not made from beans...

[ibuclaw]

Sorry to disappoint :)

Coffee is really a fruit. What we call coffee “beans” are seeds. Coffee trees produce delicate white, jasmine-like blossom which lasts only a few days. The flowers give way to fruit called coffee cherries which turn bright red when ripe. The skin of the cherry is bitter but the flesh is intensely sweet with a grape-like texture. Inside various further layers are two bluish-green seeds – the coffee “beans”. These are not beans in the botanical meaning of the word. The word bean once meant only the seed of the broad bean. This later expanded to include members of the genus Phaseolus such as the haricot bean and the runner bean, and the related genus Vigna which includes mung and adzuki beans and black-eyed peas. The term is now applied to other related plants such as soybeans, peas, lentils, vetches and lupins. So ‘lupin smoothie’ is an allowable answer but is not recommended. Many species are toxic and though sweet lupin is edible it contains allergens also found in peanuts and may cause anaphylactic shock.

The coffee tree is an evergreen which grows 20 ft tall but is pruned to 8-10 ft. Coffee pickers can pick 100 – 200 lbs (45 – 90 kg) of coffee cherries per day. Only 20 percent of this weight is the actual seed. It takes about 2,000 Arabica cherries to produce a pound of roasted coffee. Since each cherry contains two beans, your one pound of coffee is derived from 4,000 coffee “beans”. In 5-10% of any coffee crop, the cherry will contain only a single seed. This is called a 'peaberry' and it has a distinctly different, stronger flavour than normal.

In common English usage, the word “beans” sometimes also refers to seeds or other organs of other plants. For example: castor beans (from which castor oil is made); cocoa beans (which resemble bean seeds), and vanilla beans (which resemble the pods). Botanically, these are not beans either.
source (http://www.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?start=0&t=5600)

Regards
Iain

[TravisNewman]

Coffee isn't made from beans, tomatoes aren't vegetables (they're fruits), and koalas aren't bears. It just kinda happens :)

[lukjad]

Umm... I kinda already knew this, but it's interesting to think about how coffee would taste if we used read "beans". :D

[dragos240]

So what will we say now for some ranks "spilled the seeds"?

[Sporkman]

...and technically, Ubuntu is not an "Operating System", but in fact is a legume.

[chucky chuckaluck]

tl/dr, though i like coffee for whatever reason...

[Dr Small]

so we should stop drinking coffee so people can quit wasting their time picking the cherries.

[kavon89]

In other news strawberries are not made of straws.

[_noob_]

Cow pies do not taste good... Nor are they baked...

[etnlIcarus]

Bit of a non-sequitur but anyone actually tried guano bean coffee?

[dmizer]

so we should stop drinking coffee so people can quit wasting their time picking the cherries.

Oh man ... That was so bad I may have to break out my moderator tools!


Kidding of course. ;)

[MikeTheC]

Well, if coffee did come from "beans", would you fart when you drank it?

[toupeiro]

You think thats nuts, you should see where a cashew comes from...

http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2008/04/cashew-fruit.jpg

:shock:

[Giant Speck]

I'm never eating a cashew again. :shock:

In other news, pandas are not bears. They're raccoons, or at least closely related to the raccoon family.

[etnlIcarus]

In other news, pandas are not bears. They're raccoons, or at least closely related to the raccoon family.

Might want to update your encyclopaedia.


I'm never eating a cashew againNo big loss. Macadamias > cashews.

[Giant Speck]

Might want to update your encyclopaedia.

Wow. I didn't know they changed the classification of the Giant Panda. There is still argument that the Red Panda belongs in the family of species that includes the raccoon, though.


No big loss. Macadamias > cashews.

I prefer almonds and hazelnuts.

[etnlIcarus]

I prefer almonds and hazelnuts.
Heathen ...though marzipan and almond biscotti are pretty awesome.

[ibuclaw]

You think thats nuts, you should see where a cashew comes from...

http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2008/04/cashew-fruit.jpg

:shock:
That is amazing...
:o


In other news strawberries are not made of straws.
Haha, you are right in saying that strawberries are not made of straws, but they certainly aren't made from berries either ;)

A berry is defined as a 'fleshy fruit containing several-seeds'. So if a strictly-speaking view were to be taken into account, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are not berries, but 'aggregated drupes' - a drupe being a 'fleshy fruit containing a single stone or pit'. Peaches, plums, nectarines, olives and coconuts are drupes.
I say that strawberries, blackberries and raspberries are 'aggregated' because each individual fruit is actually a cluster of miniature drupes, each one of these druplets contains a tiny seed (the bits that get stuck in your teeth when you eat blackberry).
Also, I've also seen someone say that Tomatoes are a fruit. Infact, Tomatoes, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, blueberries, watermelons, kiwi fruit, cucumbers, grapes, passion fruit, papaya, peppers and bananas are all berries.

In other news:
Jaffa Cakes are made with Apricots (and are not a biscuit).

Banana's don't grow on trees ... Banana plant is a giant herb, and the bananas are it's berries. (Over the years, banana plants will appear to have walked a couple of yards).

Light is invisible, we can only see what it reflects off.

Regards
Iain

[etnlIcarus]

Strawberries don't fit your own definition of a drupe; strawberries are seeds containing a fleshy fruit.

Also, this is the only fun-fact worth noting:

Denny Crane!


Light is invisible, we can only see what it reflects off.?

We can see light. That's how the retina (photosensitive cells) work. The only condition is radiation within the visible spectrum has to be directed towards the eye, which is where 'reflection' comes into play but you can still look directly at a light source and see light.

[Giant Speck]

The strawberry is categorized as a "false fruit" or "accessory fruit," meaning that the fleshy part of the plant is not derived from the plant's ovaries, but from another part of the fruit.

In the case of the strawberry, the fleshy part of the plant is derived from the hypanthium, a floral structure consisting of the bases of the sepals, petals, and stamens fused together into one structure.

The only part of the strawberry plant that is actually a fruit are the tiny achenes, or what we call the strawberry "seeds," which cover the outside of the fleshy part of the plant. The achenes themselves hold a seed inside.

[WatchingThePain]

It takes about 2,000 Arabica cherries to produce a pound of roasted coffee.

No wonder it's so expensive to buy.

[Giant Speck]

I wonder what the actual cherries taste like.

[etnlIcarus]

I wonder what the actual cherries taste like.

Crap. Plus IIRC, they also tend to disagree with your stomach/are mildly poisonous ...one of the two.

[Orlsend]

Crap. Plus IIRC, they also tend to disagree with your stomach/are mildly poisonous ...one of the two.

I had a few of them, they taste like a really bitter avocado, the same goes with cocoa beans.... Those things are HUGE!

[bapoumba]

I like strawberries. It's even in my sig..

[BGFG]

You think thats nuts, you should see where a cashew comes from...

http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2008/04/cashew-fruit.jpg

:shock:

I've got a couple of those trees growing around my house. The fruit is quite juicy, they also come in different colours...
Grew up eating those and collecting the nuts to roast

[WatchingThePain]

Dat looks like meat and two veg dude!

[treesurf]

Crap. Plus IIRC, they also tend to disagree with your stomach/are mildly poisonous ...one of the two.


Not so, in my experience. Arabica cherries, at least, taste mildly sweet. I have eaten many of these without ever experiencing stomach upset.

[WatchingThePain]

So can I smoke them?.