What Even Is Coffee?

When you really stop and think about it, coffee is… ridiculous 🤯

It’s a seed.

Inside a fruit.

That someone picked, fermented, dried, roasted, ground…

Then poured hot water over and decided to drink.

And somehow, the result is one of the most loved drinks on earth.

Every morning, millions of us reach for a cup without questioning how utterly strange the whole process actually is. But once you pause and look at it properly, coffee becomes a small miracle of curiosity, craft, and human experimentation.

So let’s rewind.

Coffee starts life as a fruit 🍒

Coffee doesn’t begin as a bean at all.

It starts as a bright red cherry growing on a shrub, usually in warm, high-altitude regions close to the equator.

Inside that cherry are usually two seeds - these are what we call coffee beans. Before roasting, they’re green, pale, and smell nothing like coffee. More like freshly cut grass or hay.

No chocolate.

No caramel.

No richness.

All of that comes later.

So… how did anyone discover coffee?

That’s the part that amazes us most.

Somewhere in history, someone looked at this fruit and thought:

Let’s see what happens.

There are stories (and legends) from Ethiopia of people noticing the energising effects of coffee cherries. Others talk about early brews made from the fruit itself before anyone even thought to roast the seeds.

Eventually, someone tried drying the seeds.

Then heating them.

Then crushing them.

Then adding hot water.

And instead of poison… they found something deeply comforting, stimulating, and worth repeating.

From there, coffee travelled - through trade routes, cultures, cafés, homes, and rituals - becoming less about survival and more about connection.

The process is actually wild

When you lay it out step by step, it’s no wonder coffee feels special.

1. A fruit is picked by hand
2. The flesh is removed (often through fermentation)
3. The seeds are dried in the sun
4. They’re shipped across the world
5. Roasted with precision
6. Ground moments before brewing
7. Brewed with hot water
8. Drunk… half asleep

That’s a huge amount of work for a single cup.

And yet, we’ve refined this process over hundreds of years - not because we needed to, but because we wanted to.

Why roasting matters so much

Roasting is the moment everything changes.

Green coffee has potential, but it’s during roasting that flavour is unlocked - or lost.

Too fast, and it’s harsh.

Too slow, and it’s flat.

Too dark, and everything that made that coffee unique disappears.

Good roasting doesn’t overpower the coffee.

It listens to it.

It’s about respecting where the coffee came from, the work that went into growing it, and the people who’ll drink it at the other end.

That’s why we roast in small batches, with intention - not to chase trends, but to let the coffee speak.

Next time you drink a coffee…

Remember this:

You’re not just drinking a hot beverage.

You’re tasting thousands of years of curiosity, trial, error, and craft - all sparked by someone, somewhere, wondering what would happen if they tried something different.

All from a small seed inside a cherry.

And honestly?

We think that’s pretty amazing ☕️🤍

Roasted with Purpose. Brewed for Connection.