The coffee bean is easily recognised by its look as well as by the aroma of the ground, roasted coffee beans. However, the assertion might not be true for one word.

Coffee prepared from the best Arabica coffee beans may be found everywhere in your favourite coffee shop, or for something less well-known, you can find Liberica beans and much more.

What we commonly refer to as a coffee bean is actually a cherry-shaped fruit’s seed. Interestingly, the seeds inside the red or purple fruits don’t truly resemble beans. Many people mistake coffee beans for legumes even though they are fruit seeds even though they don’t resemble legumes much.  

How Do Legumes Work?

What specifically distinguishes a coffee bean from a legume? To answer it, you must first understand what qualifies as a legume. Leguminosae, also known as the Fabaceae plant family, includes legumes.

The third-largest family of flowering plants, this group contains more than 20,000 species of legumes, peas, and beans.

A coffee bean is what?

The coffee plant’s seed, from which coffee is collected, is known as a coffee bean. Two coffee beans, or seeds, are contained in each coffee cherry or fruit on the plant. Each of these seeds is regarded as one coffee bean in common terminology.

Although it can seem as though the coffee beans have split in half, this is not the case. The cherry has exactly the same ingredients as a bag of whole, unground coffee.

The only difference is that it still has a slight hint of green because it hasn’t been roasted. The two halves of these spherical coffee beans are facing each other inside the coffee cherry.

 The moniker “pea berry coffee” comes from the fact that each cherry from the plant only contains one coffee bean. A peaberry will develop when only half of a seed is fertilised in about 5% of cases. These coffee beans are extremely rare, so they sell for a high price.

What Sets Legumes Apart from Peas, Beans, and Pulses?

In actuality, beans and peas are not precisely the same as legumes. Any plant belonging to the Fabaceae or Leguminosae families may be referred to as a “legume”.

The word might be used to describe these plants’ leaves, stalks, and pods. Pulses can be beans, peas, or lentils; they are the edible seed of legume plants.

A pea plant’s pod, for instance, is a legume whether it is still connected to the plant or is detached. The peas inside the pod, however, are pulses. All legume seeds develop within pods.

Another pair of comparable groups that are included in the legumes and pulses category are beans and peas. How are beans and peas different from one another? Peas have rounder shapes, whereas beans have a wider range of shapes. In contrast to beans, which come in a wider range of hues, peas are typically green.

Beans grow best in warm climates, whereas peas do best in cooler ones. Pea plants have hollow stems, whereas bean plants do not have hollow stems.

Legumes Are Not What Coffee Beans Are

We can categorically state that coffee beans are not legumes given that we have a clear understanding of what a legume is. Unlike other beans, which grow in pods, coffee beans are extracted from the seed of a fruit.

Additionally, coffee bean trees belong to the Coffea genus in the Rubiaceae family, widely known as the bedstraw, madder, and coffee families. Coffee beans are also excluded since legumes must be a member of the plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae.

The term “coffee beans” is frequently used to refer to the coffee fruit’s seed, however this usage is entirely linguistic and does not imply any connection between coffee beans and legumes. In reality, coffee beans are the coffee fruit’s seed. Let’s investigate what this implies.

Conclusion

Understanding the definition of “legume” can make it clearer why a coffee bean is sometimes referred to as one thing while actually being another. The word “legume” is used to designate plants in the Fabaceae family, which includes black beans, peanuts, chickpeas, etc.

Even if the term “bean” refers to anything small and frequently kidney- or oval-shaped, beans are nonetheless considered members of this family. Unless they belong to this family, they are incorrectly labelled, and many beans are sold as being beans when they are not.

Due to the fact that coffee does not grow in a delicate pod, it is not a member of the legume family.

Additionally, coffee plants are not part of the legume family and are not legumes. Additionally, the fruit cannot be categorised as a legume or bean. Not all legumes are beans, which causes confusion; examples include peas and soybeans. A green bean also belongs to the vegetable category.