The fruit that holds the coffee bean is edible. What does it taste like and how many calories in a cup?

It’s apparently not considered a valuable fruit.

If you are a coffee aficionado, you would definitely know that the fruit of the coffee plant is edible. One of the world’s most prized and expensive coffees is recovered from elephant dung. Presumably such coffee acquires a distinct and robust flavor from the elephant’s gastric processes. And naturally, it’s expensive as sin since it tastes so unique and you have to hand wash a bunch of elephant manure to find the beans. One has to wonder what coffee epicures would pay for coffee beans washed from the dung of 18-year-old virgins. :-)

As to what the fruit tastes like, there are no elephants handy to ask, and I don’t live in a coffee producing area, so I’ll take the interesting link that @syz supplied at its word. Sounds like pomegranates. Tastes great, but is it really worth all the trouble?

@ETpro Interesting, never heard of that before. I have heard of Kopi Luwak though which is simliar except they feed the berries to a civet.

@uberbatman That’s another one of the same sort.