Are you interested in germinating coffee beans? So was I – so I figured it out and now have it down to a science.

Caffeine is my friend. That’s why I grow coffee, tea and yaupon holly.

Coffee is by far my favorite of the caffeine-producers, however, since its flavor is unparalleled and its kick is epic.

The problem is, right now I only have one plant in the greenhouse. That’s not near enough to match the production of coffee I need to keep me waking up in the morning.

This fall was the first time it produced coffee cherries, and I decided that instead of roasting and consuming the bounty… I’d use all the cherries for planting purposes. The last few just ripened… and I planted the first few some months ago.

The cherries have a pleasant flavor much like a red bell pepper. My kids and I (and various guests) ate the fruit and spit out the “beans” inside them.

I then planted the beans in little pots of soil on my kitchen windowsill, it being a bit chilly for coffee outside at this time of year.

When we visited the Caribbean, coffee was happy year-round.

Delicious!

As for the seeds I planted… they sat in their little pots for a couple of months until I wondered if anything was going to happen.

Then, one day, a little bean pushed its way out of the ground. Then another, and another, and another.

Germinating coffee beans takes a little time – but overall it’s easy.

The final destination for most of the plants I’m starting will be South Florida, since they won’t grow outdoors here. I’ll likely hire a Columbian guy with a donkey to ride around Ft. Lauderdale and check up on them for me, then once a year I’ll get a few big crates of fragrant beans sent north via steamboat.

It’ll be awesome.

Finally, the pictures above are from the first round of beans I germinated. I discovered that they’ll sprout a lot faster if you put a heat mat (like this one) underneath the pots. They’ll sometimes come up in just a couple of weeks that way.

Now find some fresh coffee beans… and get planting!