Can you eat coffee beans? Yes. Perhaps a better question is should you eat them? Let’s take a look at the benefits, side effects, caffeine content, and flavour (raw, roasted, espresso) when eating coffee beans. Plus 5 ways to eat them. Also get the daily consumption limit.

Can You Eat Coffee Beans?

Yes, coffee beans are edible. They are the seeds of the coffee plant and many coffee lovers enjoy eating them roasted and covered in chocolate.

Coffee beans (like many other seeds) contain high concentrations of certain compounds – like caffeine. So moderation is important.

Some may choose not to eat them because of caffeine sensitivity, pregnancy, or a sensitive digestive system.

And then there are others, we’re talking about coffee lovers here, who like to snack on them or grind them up and add them to all kinds of delicious treats.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular questions about eating coffee beans.

If I missed yours please let me know by commenting at the end of the post and I’ll do my best to answer it.

What do roasted coffee beans taste like?

Roasted coffee beans are bitter. They taste like strong, bitter coffee. And that’s why chocolate is the perfect complement.

They have a satisfying crunch, so they make a great treat for coffee lovers – that crunch, the bitter coffee flavour mixing with sweet chocolate, it’s pretty nice.

While they are crunchy they’re also slightly gritty. So eating them on their own wouldn’t be very pleasant. The sweet smooth chocolate seems to downplay the grit just enough to make fans keep going back for more.

Can you eat raw coffee beans?

Yes, green coffee beans are edible. But not many people would enjoy eating them.

I haven’t tried them yet but they are described as tasting unpleasant with a grassy/woody flavour (sounds like the flavour notes in white coffee) which is probably why we haven’t seen chocolate covered green coffee beans.

They are also known to be tough and chewy, highly acidic (tough on the tummy), and have a higher caffeine content than roasted beans.

So while you can eat them, it probably wouldn’t be very pleasant.

​​How much caffeine is in coffee beans?

An arabica coffee bean has around 6 mg of caffeine, while a robusta bean has around 12mg.

I have no way to measure the caffeine content in a coffee bean, but what I do know is that some caffeine is lost in the brewing process. So to get the same caffeine kick you’ll eat fewer beans than you would brew.

When coffee is brewed, not all of the caffeine ends up in your cup. Some caffeine is left behind in the grounds.

How much caffeine gets left behind? The larger your grind size and the faster your brew method the less caffeine in your cup. This is because the smaller the grind size and the longer the grounds steep in hot water, the more caffeine is extracted.

So eating the beans will give you more caffeine – bean for bean, than brewing them.

Benefits and Side Effects

As with everything else, there are benefits and drawbacks to eating coffee beans.

If you’re eating them covered in chocolate the situation changes a little as well, so we’ll try to keep that in mind as we consider this.

Let’s take a look at some potential positive and negative aspects of eating roasted coffee beans.