Fun fact: The “cherry” part of the coffee cherry tastes awful, but the mucilage around the bean tastes sweet. (But it has a very “green” flavor, so not everyone enjoys it.)

Some coffee is dried still inside the cherry (natural process). Or you can take off the cherry and leave the mucilage (honey process). Or you can get rid of everything before drying (washed process). No matter which process you use, the cherry and parchment are always removed before roasting.

Before you ever even think about different ways of roasting, beans from the same variety of plant will have different flavor profiles depending on the drying process.

The time, thought, and effort that goes into good coffee at every stage is staggering. I totally understand why artisan coffee carries a hefty price tag.

Source: You really can’t live in Colombia without learning all about coffee.