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Some people make jam out of coffee fruits, and I would like to try that out. It seems difficult, as it requires getting actual fruits, and as fresh as possible---probably even harder out of the Green Belt.

What variety of coffee should I order?

A bit of background: The jam idea comes from reading a story around the 2014 barista selection to represent the U.S. One contender partnered with a Venezuelan coffee farmer, whose mother was making traditional jam with coffee. That's how I got into searching more.

Eric Platon
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    I've had coffee jelly, prepared with coffee and agar or gelatine; but that's more like roasted/brewed coffee. Sounds like you are interested in retaining the whole cherry (like a preserve/conserve) -- would you consider green (unroasted) beans, or just coffee cherry husks? Might be easier to acquire/use. +1 for interesting idea. – hoc_age Feb 18 '15 at 14:10
  • Early stage with jam actually. I believe the fruit is necessary---the cherry husk. The conserve is a great idea to start with, actually! I'm thinking about peaberries for their sweetness, but they are pricey. – Eric Platon Feb 18 '15 at 14:20
  • I let aside jelly for other questions! Gelatins and agar were great, especially due to cultural and diet issues, but I'd prefer with discuss that on another question ;-) – Eric Platon Feb 18 '15 at 14:21
  • I think that using dried husks only would be a good start. I posit that husks will be easier to obtain, cheaper, and (if they're dried) will ship better. And you could try to make cascara also :). Once/if you find the cherry/beans/husks, consider asking about process over at [cooking.se]; credit to @Jefromi for suggesting this. You might consider to pose the "anybody make coffee cherry preserves" there anyway (or I could, if you don't want yet-another SE profile, or if you don't mind). – hoc_age Feb 18 '15 at 20:10
  • Maybe modifying this to ask about the factors that make a bean good for jam (and recommendations of beans which have those properties) would make this less likely to be closed as opinion based? –  Feb 19 '15 at 13:38

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After much chatter about this question, I must admit that I've become a little obsessed with this concept. Maybe a lot obsessed...

Concept. I see three other possible ways of making a jam/conserve/preserve/marmalade/jelly/... out of coffee fruit (i.e., coffee berries / coffee cherries) or coffee cherry husks (by "husks" I mean basically the fruit with seeds removed -- everything except the beans), in decreasing order of actual coffee fruit content:

  • Use the whole fruit (possibly with seeds and all), so as to make a conserve;
  • Make something like a jam or marmalade, using the shredded, dried, rehydrated husks;
  • Infuse the husks as cascara, discard the spent husks, then make a jelly out of the resulting brew (tisane).

Exclusions. Note that I am not including coffee jelly, which is made of (conventional, roasted) brewed coffee, as noted previously; also not including making a jam out of roasted or un-roasted coffee beans themselves. Both of those are interesting concepts, but discounted here to be left as separate topics.

Progress! I searched a bunch for a source of any coffee cherries or dried husks. Amazon didn't even seem to sell any (must have been my error!?). I asked around at a few local coffee shops, with little progress. I found a few pages, like this one and one from a NYT blog that gave a glimmer of hope that husks (at least) could be found. Both of those articles point to Counter Culture Coffee as selling these, but they're not in stock. An immensely helpful person from CCC pointed me to Verve Coffee Roasters, who sell coffee cherry husks for cascara. So as to get my lot before the rush on coffee cherry husks that would undoubtedly come from this post, I ordered some. Since I'm having trouble being patient and waiting for the stuff to arrive, I started...

Seeking Seasoned Advice! With all due credit to OP @EricPlaton, I posted a question over at Seasoned Advice about the concept of making jam or preserves out of coffee cherry husks or whole coffee cherries. I wrote a comment about this above, but I still hope OP doesn't mind!

More to come, and any comments or suggestions are kindly welcomed.

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hoc_age
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