Ok so coffee is made from coffee beans. And beans are *also* made from beans. Why is nobody making, like, black bean coffee?
from spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 14:52
https://lemmy.world/post/19402638

Why doesn’t this exist?

Take dried beans, roast 'em, grind 'em, and brew some bean juice?

I have no idea if it would taste good or not, but we don’t know if we don’t try.

Edit: I need to see what dried beans I have and maybe go shopping. I will give this a try with a couple different types of beans and report back if I fart or not.

#nostupidquestions

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Carrolade@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 14:55 next collapse

We do in some cases, you’ve basically described hot coca for instance. But yeah, you might be onto something, roast up some kidney beans and see what happens.

Asidonhopo@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 17:01 next collapse

Wait, are cocoa pods beans? What even is a bean?

LordGimp@lemm.ee on 04 Sep 17:42 next collapse

Ur a bean

jerkface@lemmy.ca on 04 Sep 18:14 collapse

a hooman bean

Carrolade@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 18:35 collapse

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean

Bean is admittedly a bit of a fuzzy term. Coffee beans are not technically beans, and probably wouldn’t be very good in your chili.

skvlp@lemm.ee on 04 Sep 17:36 collapse

Cocoa comes from a seed, not a bean. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean

Carrolade@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 18:34 next collapse

Beans are a particular type of seed.

Wolf314159@startrek.website on 04 Sep 20:09 collapse

Coffee is also a seed, not a bean.

AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 14:57 next collapse

Coffee isn’t a true bean—it’s more closely related to gardenias.

spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:35 next collapse

Interesting, but the all-knowing Wikipedia seems to agree with you:

From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_bean:

Even though the coffee beans are not technically beans, they are referred to as such because of their resemblance to true beans.

I’m still tempted to try this, though.

trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 19:48 collapse

Do not do this with dried beans. Most dried beans are toxic and need to be soaked and boiled for about half an hour to become edible.

From the Wikipedia page for kidney beans:

As few as five raw beans or a single undercooked kidney bean can cause severe nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pains.

MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io on 04 Sep 18:12 collapse

Just to piggyback on this. The simple truth is that lot of things are just called things because they resemble other things, either in form or function.

Coffee is not a bean; beans come from legumes, coffee fruit seeds are roughly bean sized and shaped.

Cacao and vanilla are also not legumes.

The peanut is a legume like beans and peas, but the it’s fruit treated like a culinary nut.

Cashews are not true nuts. They Grow outside the actual fruit.

Nut milk and butter do not come from mammary glands.

Tea is made for the leaves of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), which is a shrub or small tree, but many infusions of dried plant matter are often referred to as teas. The Tea Tree (Melaleuca) of oil fame is a different plant entirely. It got its name because some sailors made a ‘tea’ from its leaves after they ran out of real tea leaves.

Currants (genus Ribes) are actually named after raisins. Raisins of Corinth were small raisins that were produced and exported from… well… Corinth. Over time ‘Corinth’ morphed into ‘currant’, they dropped the ‘raisins of’, and the local small dryable fruit started being referred to as a currants too. Eventually, production of the tiny raisins migrated to other parts of Greece and some smart guy thought “Hey! Let’s market these fancy tiny raisins that we are importing from Zante (the greek island Zakynthos) by calling them Zante Currants to distinguish them from the common local currants.

tate@lemmy.sdf.org on 04 Sep 22:58 next collapse

And many “flowers” are not flowers at all. Poinsettia is the first one that comes to mind, but there are lots of them.

QuarterSwede@lemmy.world on 07 Sep 21:50 collapse

Thank you for adding this. Lots of fascinating info. TIL!

over_clox@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 14:58 next collapse

No caffeine yo, that’s where it’s at for most people. But hey, ain’t nobody gonna stop you from trying. Let us know how it goes if you ever do try.

XeroxCool@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:05 next collapse

Instructions unclear, made chili

nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 04 Sep 15:09 next collapse

That’s kind of what aquafaba is but you don’t need to grind or roast them, because most times you want aquafaba to be quite thick. I don’t know how often it’s used elsewhere but I know it can replace egg whites in coctails that call for egg whites.

Soku@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:26 collapse

Apparently you can even make meringue with it. Haven’t tried that but I often make mayonnaise with aquafaba.

14th_cylon@lemm.ee on 04 Sep 15:12 next collapse

but we don’t know if we don’t try

Someone probably already tried. Every time you are asking yourself “am I the first one to think of x?”, the answer is usually no.

Boozilla@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:18 collapse

Maybe after imperialism / colonialism re: tea and tobacco, folks were less inclined? Or they kept it on the DL.

14th_cylon@lemm.ee on 04 Sep 18:07 collapse

Less inclined to what, experiment with food? Sounds unlikely to me.

Boozilla@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 18:23 collapse

Trade / share the knowledge.

evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:36 next collapse

Coffee beans aren’t beans. There are some beans that are roasted as a substitute for coffee, like the seeds of the Kentucky coffeetree. In times of shortage, people have tried many things to replace coffee, like dandelion and chicory root. For the most part, the substitutes arent as good as the original, so people don’t stick with them. There’s a chance someone has tried to roast and brew pinto beans or whatever, but they probably taste bad.

Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee on 04 Sep 15:37 next collapse

Because of the taste? While it’s not common to brew a drink with other beans, we eat them all the time, and it’s pretty obvious in doing so that they aren’t flavors that lend themselves to a beverage.

Coffee beans are actually the seed of a more traditional “fruit” (ie, sweet and acidic) rather than a legume like other beans (also technically seeds, but vegetal in flavor, with an entirely different taste and texture). You’re basically just going to get a weak broth from traditional beans.

Similarly, people have tried steeping every type of leaf, plant, and fruit out there in water, but it’s a pretty limited list that remains popularly used for tea, as it’s a pretty limited list (relative to the incredible diversity of plant life) that actually tastes good that way.

People use mushrooms, various roots (like chicory), other fruity seeds, and more to create coffee-like drinks, and/so with the number of people and cultures out there with their own tastes and traditions, it’s a relatively safe bet that if people aren’t drinking it anywhere in the world, it’s because they’ve tried it and it just doesn’t taste good.

seaQueue@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:48 next collapse

Let us know how it goes

HelluvaKick@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:49 next collapse

We have coffee. We have tea.

I assume humans have run hot water through every conceivable plant grounds to see what it would taste like.

SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works on 04 Sep 17:46 collapse

It would suck if poison ivy tea tasted really good

jewbacca117@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 15:50 next collapse

Coffee wouldn’t be a very popular drink without the caffeine. Find me some caffeinated black beans and I’ll try it your way.

Shawdow194@fedia.io on 04 Sep 15:45 next collapse

We milk everything plant

Almond, soy, peanut, grape

JoYo@lemmy.ml on 04 Sep 16:13 next collapse

coffee is a seed, not a bean, pulse, or legume.

mvirts@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 16:14 next collapse

You could try drinking the juice out of a can of beans 😹

Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc on 04 Sep 16:33 next collapse

Probably because of how much taste coffee can be extracted via brewing vs black bean. Probably gonna takes some time to extract the taste of black bean, by then it’s might as well be soup.

Also due to the taste and smell.

wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io on 04 Sep 16:50 next collapse

I visited Panama for an agricultural trip about a decade ago where we focused on coffee agriculture and production. Coincidentally, there are some coffees that blend in beans or peanuts to mellow the flavor. This is usually done for cheaper coffees that use robusto beans instead of arabica. It’s also to relieve some of the acrid taste that can develop during the drying out process if the beans are dried around animal droppings.

If you’re interested in what a mellowed coffee would taste like, I think chock full of nuts is a brand you can try in the states.

Edit: ok so I did some more research and it appears that chock full o nuts likely no longer does this, they just have typical coffee nowadays. I’ll leave it to you other internet sleuths to find a brand that does.

pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online on 04 Sep 17:26 next collapse

A vanilla soy late is actually a 3 bean soup.

EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works on 04 Sep 17:59 next collapse

Unfortunately only in culinary terms, as neither vanilla nor coffee beans are true beans

bitcrafter@programming.dev on 05 Sep 22:20 collapse

My taste buds disagree that this is “unfortunate”.

norimee@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 18:47 collapse

The vanilla plant is an orchid and not a bean.

sramder@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 17:40 next collapse

You can get it in a can, just gotta’ pour it off before you toss all the beans. Or get one of those big boba straws… pro tip: buy a few cans, there’s just not enough in one.

palordrolap@fedia.io on 04 Sep 17:44 next collapse

I strongly suspect that many of these things have already, uh, been tried.

As for those that clearly made it through at least one round of testing, a self-styled "Weird Explorer" has a YouTube series called "That's not coffee" where he - and occasionally a friend or two - reviews some of them.

Not sure if there's anyone on there who has tried roasting and grinding other sorts of beans for science though. The closest I can think of is the various creators making tofu alternatives from beans that aren't soy, which kind of turns the whole thing on its head: Could you make a tofu from coffee beans? (I'm guessing not, but that's another for-science idea.)

Nemo@midwest.social on 04 Sep 18:03 next collapse

Coffee “beans” are closer to cherry pits than any real bean.

Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee on 04 Sep 20:58 collapse

What about toe beans?

AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 21:37 next collapse

They aren’t close to cherry pits at all.

Nemo@midwest.social on 04 Sep 22:00 collapse

Their beauty is beyond compare.

zaph@sh.itjust.works on 04 Sep 18:12 next collapse

Ignoring the fact that coffee beans aren’t beans, for the same reason we don’t make tea with just any leaf. Someone braver than you tried it and it was disgusting.

Maggoty@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 18:34 next collapse

We do make tea with a lot more plants than people realize though.

zaph@sh.itjust.works on 04 Sep 19:05 next collapse

Absolutely that’s why I didn’t specify a leaf type. Probably could have said poison ivy and been fine though

KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee on 05 Sep 02:09 collapse

Anything is edible. Once.

maniii@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 10:50 collapse

Dont they make Tea out of stinging nettles or something?

I’ve tried hibiscus tea which is nice even without the sugar.

Crogdor@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 01:23 collapse

Nettle tea is delicious.

gmtom@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 14:39 collapse

No, tea is the name of the plant. If its not made from tea leaves its not bloody tea!!

Maggoty@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 16:26 next collapse

Oh apologies Commissar, I didn’t realize! I’m just a poor American coffee drinker.

norimee@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 18:39 collapse

I’m gonna go and brew myself a nice and relaxing lavender verbena tea.

You can have the “bloody tea” yourself (which sounds disgusting btw I’d prefer my tea plant based, thank you very much).

gmtom@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 23:06 collapse

Tea is just blank blood diluted in water

Lemming6969@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 21:43 next collapse

Tisane to be pedantic

tamal3@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 23:00 next collapse

Or toxic! Don’t forget toxic.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 05 Sep 12:40 collapse

Or even psychedelic. Don’t think I need to say not to forget it, because I’m sure you won’t be able to 🫠

z00s@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 01:47 collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/fbd6bb12-95be-4bb2-b75d-d16a71ca9b28.jpeg">

GooberEar@lemmy.wtf on 04 Sep 18:22 next collapse

Edit: I need to see what dried beans I have and maybe go shopping. I will give this a try with a couple different types of beans and report back if I fart or not.

Hope you have some alpha-galactosidase at your disposal.

The simplified explanation: A reason beans give some people gas is due to certain types of sugars and carbohydrates they contain. Those sugars are water soluble. Seems like brewing beans would concentrate those sugars and lead to epic tootage.

Also, one method for reducing how much gas that beans cause is to soak them in lots of water. Basically, soak them for up to 8 hours, drain, rinse, and repeat a couple more times. It works on the same principal, that the soaking process will remove at least some of the problematic, water soluble sugars. Supposedly adding a small amount of baking soda helps, too. I’m less certain about that.

BearOfaTime@lemm.ee on 04 Sep 18:35 next collapse

I think Alton discusses this on Good Eats, and a long soak doesn’t really make a difference (according to him).

He did have a solution, I just don’t recall. May have been baking soda.

GooberEar@lemmy.wtf on 04 Sep 20:12 collapse

Oh, if Alton said that then it must be true. Who’s Alton?

scutiger@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 20:18 next collapse

Alton John, a famous musician who sings about food.

GooberEar@lemmy.wtf on 04 Sep 20:20 collapse

Any relation to Elton? He sings about food sometimes, too.

BearOfaTime@lemm.ee on 08 Sep 16:07 collapse

I told you, Good Eats. I wasn’t ambiguous. And he gives chemistry reasons why.

He has a food chemist that explains things.

So stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.

Thavron@lemmy.ca on 04 Sep 19:02 next collapse

Also aren’t kidney beans highly poisonous when consumed dried?

trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 19:42 collapse

Yes, many beans are, but kidney beans more than most. They need to be soaked and cooked for a significant amount of time to neutralize the toxins.

spittingimage@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 23:44 collapse

How bad are the toxins? How sick will they make you?

trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 05:47 collapse

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney_bean#Toxicity

As few as five raw beans or a single undercooked kidney bean can cause severe nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pains.

z00s@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 01:49 collapse

“Epic tootage”

I think that was a Miles Davis album

Kolanaki@yiffit.net on 04 Sep 23:04 next collapse

Isn’t that what black bean soup is?

dwemthy@lemdro.id on 05 Sep 00:09 collapse

But with all the solids strained out

spittingimage@lemmy.world on 04 Sep 23:40 next collapse

Because we’re not criminally insane.

But since we’re on this fascinating topic, here’s a Youtube video about other things people have tried to substitute for coffee during the American civil war. (Hint: not beans.)

Akasazh@feddit.nl on 05 Sep 10:46 collapse

This is/c/nostupidquestions though

spittingimage@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 19:17 collapse

But not /c/nostupidanswers.

Akasazh@feddit.nl on 05 Sep 21:34 collapse

Maybe impolite ones?

spittingimage@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 21:43 collapse

Maybe!

njordomir@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 01:41 next collapse

My elderly relative in Germany used to drink Caro? Carro? coffee. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caro_(drink) Barely, Rye, and Chicory. Chicory, if I recall correctly is still in various things, including Fiber Snack Bars. I had to look it up since I didn’t know what it was and wanted to know if it was bad for me in some way. Turns out, as usual, I should be more concerned about the copious amounts of sugar.

SassyRamen@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 03:34 collapse

You can actually buy chicory coffee. I used it for a while as a coffee replacement.

sznowicki@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 05:08 collapse

Yeah. It’s very popular in Poland among old people. It reminds them their childhood

SassyRamen@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 06:06 collapse

Username checks out

I didn’t know it is also used in Poland, here in Germany it’s mostly unheard of; other than by a few weirdos like myself.

Mariemarion@lemm.ee on 05 Sep 06:24 next collapse

It was common in France until my dad’s childhood, in the 60s. There were commercials for Ricoré (half coffee, half chickory) in the 80s. AFAIK, you can still buy it in all supermarkets.

friendlyhobo@lemm.ee on 05 Sep 06:35 collapse

Chicory coffee is still available in US, it has a history in New Orleans as well.

sznowicki@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 12:29 next collapse

In Poland it was popular as a breakfast drink for children in the 1980/1990s when I was a kiddo

norimee@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 18:59 collapse

No it isn’t. Especially Caro Kaffee is a quite well known brand you can buy in every random supermarket.

I guess many GenZ kids wouldn’t know it, but everyone who had a grandparent that lived through the food sparse years after the war would.

SassyRamen@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 19:13 collapse

I’m 34 and the only one I’d say, that would know much about it

heydo@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 02:14 next collapse

You should know that undercooked beans can be poisonous, and it is best to soak them before cooking.

If you do try this please prepare the beans properly first.

SendMePhotos@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 04:56 collapse

Tf?

BenLeMan@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 03:16 next collapse

ITT: Because it would be <img alt="disgustang" src="https://media.tenor.com/pI2e0werQgsAAAAM/disgusting-yuck.gif"> and possibly poisonous.

Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 04:44 next collapse

I drank it in Taiwan among other very low sugar juices that I prefer over plain water. It’s just one of many drinks made from ingredients we never thought of, like mushroom drinks and cereal grain drinks. The bean drink must have been forgettable enough that I can’t describe the taste after four years away.

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a8daf5ba-20d2-4a1e-bb71-5c5637812989.jpeg"> <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5cf4323c-98f4-4275-a481-bc5fdc7108e2.jpeg">

www.agv.com.tw/product-category/beverages/

evening_push579@feddit.nu on 05 Sep 08:16 collapse

Just wanted to add that tea with black beans, red beans, roasted barley, roasted rice etc are common in Japan. I assume Taiwan has the same, judging from the drinks posted above (the label even says the Japanese name in roman letters).

Soggy@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 06:45 collapse

Barley tea is delicious.

Treczoks@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 08:06 next collapse

A lot of things in botany have similar names, but are totally different things. A “strawberry” is a berry only by names (it’s closest relative is the hazelnut, IIRC), a “peanut” is no nut, either.

So it should not surprize when one learns that the Cofea plant is a Rubiaceae family plant, not a Fabaceae/Leguminosae family plant, i.e. what we commonly call “beans” like green beans, peas, or, amazingly, peanuts. It is just called a “coffee bean” because it reminded someone back in time of a bean, shapewise.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 05 Sep 11:28 next collapse

The question still stands… Where is my hot green bean juice?!

Chickenslippers@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 17:56 next collapse

Everywhere if you’re determined.

Treczoks@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 19:57 next collapse

Have you tried making it yourself? Try roasting and grinding some dried peas or lentils, and report back how you liked that “bean-coffee”. Nobody is going to stop you. Do it FOR SCIENCE!

Anticorp@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 22:23 collapse

Sitting on a shelf at the grocery store. Get yourself some dried beans, run them through a coffee grinder, and make your disgusting concoction using your preferred brewing method.

asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 19:26 next collapse

So if it’s not a bean, what is it? It’s not the fruit, so is it the seed?

WldFyre@lemm.ee on 05 Sep 19:36 next collapse

IIRC its more like a pit than a seed, but yeah

SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 06 Sep 06:19 collapse

It actually is the seed of the coffee plant.

morhp@lemmynsfw.com on 05 Sep 19:35 collapse

A “strawberry” is a berry only by names (it’s closest relative is the hazelnut, IIRC),

Close relatives to strawberries are other similar plants like Sibbaldia. More distantly related are roses and lots of other fruits like raspberries, apples, peaches and so on. Hazelnuts are even more distantly related (not super far, but also not super close). You’re probably thinking of hazelnuts because the small seeds on strawberries are technically nuts.

Treczoks@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 19:44 next collapse

I stand corrected. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had the idea stored that it is closer to the hazelnut than e.g. apples and peaches. I’ll go and refresh my knowledge at the earliest opportunity.

Nonetheless, it’s not a berry.

Soggy@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 06:44 collapse

Not nuts but very close, they’re called “achenes” (ə-ˈkēn). The only Important difference is that nuts have a thick, protective shell but we’re being specific here.

Moreless@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 20:13 next collapse

Coffee is more red/brown than black.

UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works on 05 Sep 20:45 next collapse

Coffee comes from cherrys

dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de on 05 Sep 22:01 next collapse

Come again?

WordBox@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 02:50 next collapse

But it’s already popped.

abbadon420@lemm.ee on 06 Sep 05:49 collapse

COFFEE COMES FROM CHERRYS

Gumus@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 22:03 collapse

I guess you mean “berries”

canadaduane@lemmy.ca on 05 Sep 22:45 collapse

A coffee bean is a seed from the Coffea plant and the source for coffee. It is the pit inside the red or purple fruit. This fruit is often referred to as a coffee cherry, and like the cherry, it is a fruit with a pit.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_bean

dubyakay@lemmy.ca on 06 Sep 02:35 next collapse

So going by OP’s analogy, we should make cherry juice out of all the varieties of cherries.

bitwaba@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 08:46 collapse

You can make cherry juice, but presumably you’d do that by crushing the cherry meat to extract the juice. That’s different from how coffee is made. To create cherry coffee, we’d have to take the cherry pits, dry them, roast them, grind them, then pour hot water over them.

Gumus@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 05:36 collapse

I know how it works and I’ve seen coffee plants in real life. I didn’t know the fruit is called a cherry in English. They don’t look much like cherries apart from being red…

Anticorp@lemmy.world on 05 Sep 22:21 next collapse

Because it would taste disgusting, and it doesn’t have caffeine, so there’s no motivation to drink it.

Boomkop3@reddthat.com on 06 Sep 05:57 collapse

chocolate milk?