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Comment by seattle_spring | Hacker News Reader

So I can't sell my coffee grounds for $75 / pound?

The article isn't talking about coffee grounds though, but about the fruit that is produced by coffee plants around the seeds.

I have tasted it, fresh from coffee plants, and wondered why it was just discarded and not eaten as a fruit, sold, juiced or whatever, because it's juicy and sweet.

I'm sure I've had jam made from it before, but I've never been able to find it again. Nothing useful comes up from searching for "coffee cherry jam" or "cascara jam" (or similar).

I tend to prefer natural process coffees, where the beans are dried without the fruit being removed, which gives the coffee more of a fruit taste.

I wonder how the price of natural process coffee will change due to this.

Yeah, I roast at home and I get the most delicious natural process Ethiopian Sidama beans at like $5/pound. It would really be a bummer if those suddenly skyrocketed in price and became harder to obtain...

Can you recommend a place to order these beans? I'm interested to try roasting at home.

I can recommend Sweet Maria’s, they have quality beans and provide great resources about home roasting techniques.

Others mentioned sweetmarias.com which is great. I typically buy directly from a couple distributors at greencoffeebuyingclub.com. You can also check local roasteries in your area- sometimes they sell greens too (like Third Coast here in Austin).

Coffee roasting is a really fun hobby that has a surprising amount lore and detail. I highly recommend hanging around: https://www.home-barista.com/home-roasting/

^^ That forum has some really knowledgeable folks and lots of cool DIY projects to read about. Have fun!

Have you tried Yergacheffe? It’s even better in my opinion.

Yeah I love Yirgacheffe too, they are on my rotation :-)

Some years are better than others, coffee is a crop like any other that varies in quality. Some roasters stockpile beans from good crop years and are skilled at making a consistent product. When you buy your own greens and roast at home, flavors can vary quite a bit. Personally, I love the variability, and the adventure of trying new flavors and learning to roast different beans.

> The article isn't talking about coffee grounds though, but about the fruit that is produced by coffee plants around the seeds.

I know it's not, which is why I responded with "So I can't...".

If you just read the headline, you might assume it's referring to used coffee grounds.

There is a theory that this is how coffee originated - someone over cooked the berry brew and roasted the beans.

I often wonder how coffee or chocolate were discovered since there are many steps involved in making each. It's not like someone long ago tasted a bean and thought it was great it's a complicated way to get to the end product.

Add olives to that. The raw fruit is inedible — at least the green fresh olive I once tried was.

No, but you can put in on my compost pile for free.

Probably shouldn't do that. Caffeine kills plants.

Only if you're dumping fresh grounds directly onto the plants. Used grounds that have been composted are generally regarded as quite beneficial.

whoops that's what I've been doing past few weeks...

Used grounds are probably fine if that's what you've been doing. Actual fresh grounds that have not been used to brew coffee are not a great idea.

Interesting. My grandmother used to dump her coffee grounds on her roses almost every day. She swore it was what made them so big.

A lot of Starbucks stores will give you grounds for free for use in your garden. I don't know if they recommend composting first or not. My guess is they don't care.

Used grounds != fresh grounds. :)

Used, composted grounds are definitely good. Used grounds add biological material to the soil as well and lots of people have good success with that from what I understand.

> One of the key functions of caffeine in the plants that produce it is allelopathy – the ability to reduce competition from surrounding species by suppressing their growth.

Wow, makes sense. I never stopped to ask why the plant produced caffeine in the first place.

Well, not only that; caffeine in plants acts as a natural pesticide.

Caffeine in a warm, moist, bacteria-rich environment, has a half-life comparable to that in the human body.

Compost your grounds, they're great.

Coffee grounds are also very acidic, so you could be killing the microorganisms in your compost.

Compost your egg shells also!

Works great for growing mushrooms though...

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