Coffee Flour: Turning Coffee Cherries Into Food
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Coffee flour is a gluten-free flour made from the dried pulp of the coffee cherry, the fruit that surrounds the coffee bean, not from the roasted beans themselves. The pulp is removed during processing, dried quickly and milled into a fine, dark brown powder that bakers use to replace part of the wheat flour in breads, cookies and pastas.
It is one of the more creative ideas for turning a coffee byproduct into food. Below we explain what coffee flour is, how it is made, how it tastes and how to bake with it, and how it differs from cascara and from ground coffee.
What Is Coffee Flour?
Every coffee bean grows inside a small fruit called a coffee cherry. Under its skin is a layer of sweet, sticky pulp, and inside that are the two seeds we roast as coffee. To get to the seeds, farms remove the fruit. In many cases that pulp has been treated as waste, composted or left to break down near processing sites.
Coffee flour takes that discarded fruit, dries it and grinds it into flour. If you want to understand the fruit in more detail, our guide what is a coffee cherry walks from flower to bean.
Who developed it?
The best-known commercial effort came from CF Global Holdings, a company based in Bellevue, Washington, founded and led by Dan Belliveau. Its work drew investment and collaboration from Intellectual Ventures. In the 2013 to 2014 harvest season, the company was working with farms in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Vietnam to produce coffee flour for commercial testing, aiming for wider availability the following season. The company held intellectual property on how the pulp should be handled and dried.
How Coffee Flour Is Made
The process is simple to describe, though tricky to do well, because wet fruit pulp spoils fast.
- Harvest. Ripe coffee cherries are picked, just as for any coffee.
- De-pulping. A machine separates the beans from the skin and pulp. The beans continue on to become coffee.
- Fast drying. The pulp must be dried quickly before it ferments or molds. This step is the heart of the process.
- Milling. The dried pulp is ground into a fine powder.
- Packing. The finished flour is sealed for sale to bakeries and food makers.
Want to see how cherries are picked in the first place? Read how coffee is harvested.
Coffee Flour Nutrition, Taste and Caffeine
According to industry reporting on CF Global's product, coffee flour is gluten-free, more than 50 percent fiber and about 12 to 13 percent protein, and it contains potassium and iron. It has a rich brown color that bakers compared to rye or pumpernickel flour.
Because it comes from the fruit rather than the roasted seed, coffee flour does not taste like a cup of brewed coffee. It has no roasted notes, since the pulp is dried rather than roasted.
And caffeine? Coffee flour does contain some, but much less than you might expect. In an interview with a baking trade publication, Belliveau estimated that a couple of slices of bread made with it would contain about as much caffeine as one-eighth of a cup of coffee. It is a flour, not an energy boost.
| Coffee flour | Cascara | Ground coffee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Made from | Dried, milled coffee cherry pulp | Dried coffee cherry husks | Roasted coffee seeds |
| Form | Fine powder | Dried pieces, like loose tea | Coarse to fine grounds |
| Main use | Baking, partial flour replacement | Steeped as a tea-like drink | Brewing coffee |
| Roasted flavor | No | No | Yes |
| Caffeine | Small amounts | Some | Highest of the three |
Cascara comes from the same fruit but is used very differently. Our article on cascara, the tea made from coffee cherries explains how it is brewed.
How to Bake With Coffee Flour
Coffee flour has no gluten, so it cannot fully replace wheat flour in yeast breads or fluffy cakes. It works best as a partial replacement or as part of a gluten-free flour blend. Here are some practical starting points (our general suggestions, not official guidelines):
- Start small. Replace about 10 percent of the wheat flour in a recipe, then adjust. High-fiber flours absorb a lot of liquid and can make baked goods dense or dry.
- Add a little extra liquid. Because fiber drinks up water, you may need an extra tablespoon or two of milk or water per cup of total flour.
- Pair it with chocolate and spice. Brownies, chocolate cookies, gingerbread and banana bread suit its dark color and stand up to its distinct character.
- Try it in pasta or crackers. Dense doughs handle high-fiber flours well and show off the dark color.
- Store it airtight. Keep it in a cool, dark, dry place like any specialty flour.
If you cannot find coffee flour, you can still bake with coffee flavor using brewed coffee or instant coffee in recipes like our espresso brownies or mocha chocolate chip cookies. Just remember that this gives a roasted coffee taste, which coffee flour does not.
Why Coffee Flour Matters
For every bean that ends up in your cup, a whole fruit has to be removed. Finding uses for that fruit is one way the coffee industry tries to waste less and, in some projects, create additional income for farming communities. Coffee flour sits alongside cascara and other cherry-based products as part of a broader effort to see the coffee plant as a fruit crop, not just a seed crop.
It also changes how you think about your morning cup: coffee is, at heart, the seed of a cherry. That is a good reason to choose beans whose origins you know. Explore regions in our guide to the coffee belt.
Coffee Flour FAQ
Is coffee flour made from coffee beans?
No. Coffee flour is made from the dried pulp of the coffee cherry, the fruit around the bean. Ground roasted coffee beans are a different product used for brewing.
Does coffee flour taste like coffee?
Not really. Since it comes from unroasted fruit pulp, it lacks the roasted flavor of brewed coffee. It works best in recipes with chocolate, spice or other bold flavors.
Does coffee flour have caffeine?
Yes, but only a little. The developer estimated that two slices of bread made with it would contain about as much caffeine as one-eighth of a cup of coffee.
Is coffee flour gluten-free?
Yes, coffee flour itself contains no gluten. If you need strictly gluten-free food, also check the other flours in the recipe and whether the product was processed in a facility that handles wheat.
From Cherry to Cup
Coffee flour is a smart reminder that coffee starts as fruit, and that the bean is only part of the story. Feel Espresso does not sell coffee flour, but we do care about the beans that come out of those cherries. Explore our single origin coffees to taste how different farms and regions shape flavor, or try our fruity Ethiopia Natural, a natural-process coffee dried inside the cherry, for a cup where the fruit really shows. Every order is roasted 1 to 5 days before delivery.