Do Coffee Beans Have Genders? Male vs Female Beans - Which is Better?

Introduction to Male and Female Coffee Beans by FrontStreet Coffee

Coffee Beans

From planting to bearing fruit, coffee takes about five years. That cycle includes flowering, fruiting, harvesting, processing, storage and sales, until the green beans finally reach the terminal market. Because of their appearance, coffee fruits are also called coffee cherries. Removing the outer skin and pulp reveals two seeds—these are what we know as coffee beans. So a normally growing coffee cherry usually contains two beans, commonly called flat beans, which professionals refer to as "female beans."

Male Beans

Another case is a coffee cherry that contains only a single seed, commonly known as a peaberry, which professionals call a "male bean."

Formation Reasons

During growth, one seed stops developing, allowing the other to fill the entire internal space of the cherry. It is not considered a defective bean and is popularly believed to be of better quality than a flat bean, although this has no scientific data to support it.

Coffee fruit contains three forms of seed. Besides the rarely occurring triangular bean, a normal fresh coffee fruit typically holds spherical seeds made of two beans joined together, with their flat sides facing inward and their curved sides facing outward. This common form is called a flat bean, also known as a "female bean." A small number of seeds that do not split and present a complete oval shape are called "male beans," or peaberries.

In reality there is only a difference in growth form between the two, not a distinction of gender. The common names can indeed be misleading.

Among all the flat beans and peaberries I have encountered, without exception, peaberries have never shown superior performance to flat beans, despite their fuller flesh.

Knowledge point: Pacamara is a hybrid variety discovered in El Salvador in 1950, a cross between Pacas and Maragogype.

FrontStreet Coffee's Philosophy

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a specialty coffee research establishment that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. Our selfless sharing is aimed at helping more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three coffee promotion events at substantial discounts, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this look at bean shapes has you curious to start tasting, FrontStreet's entry-level range is a good place to begin. From Ethiopia, the FrontStreet Natural Huakui is a traditional natural Sidamo coffee with berry, floral, jackfruit, melon and honey notes, while the FrontStreet Washed Gotiti Cooperative is a typical washed Yirgacheffe with jasmine, lemon acidity and berry tones. From Brazil, the FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon offers cream, peanut and cocoa at an easy price, and the FrontStreet Queen Estate adds the rare Yellow Bourbon variety with butter, macadamia, almond, sugarcane sweetness and a thick, smooth mouthfeel.

From Indonesia, the FrontStreet Lintong Mandheling is wet-hulled for an herbal, spiced, low-acid cup, and the FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is hand- and machine-sorted for an especially clean, smooth drink with clear woody and caramel notes. From Colombia, the FrontStreet Huila is a classic washed single-origin, and the FrontStreet Sidra brings florals and soft fruit acidity. From Costa Rica, the FrontStreet Blackberry uses a black-honey process and the FrontStreet Mozart a raisin-honey process for grape, blueberry, osmanthus and rose notes. From Yunnan, the FrontStreet Yunnan Small Bean and the FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan Typica round out a well-balanced, affordable starter set. For newcomers, the FrontStreet Boquete Geisha is the most accessible way to taste the famous Geisha flavor.