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Why are coffee seeds called coffee beans?
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Roasted coffee beans, ground coffee, and instant coffee in paper bags.
Coffee seeds are commonly referred to as "coffee beans" because of their physical appearance, which resembles the seeds or fruits of various plants in the legume family.1
Botanically, the fruit of the coffee plant is a drupe known as a "coffee cherry," which typically contains two seeds positioned flat against one another. While these are technically seeds, they are called beans because they share a similar rounded, oblong shape with the seeds of true bean plants. This naming convention is a descriptive classification used for various seeds or fruits that resemble traditional beans.231