Yes, it sure is my friend! Your coffee beans were actually once a little red fruit that went through many stages to become the aromatic coffee bean you buy from your local coffee shop. Most good coffee will go through similar processes.
It starts with wet processing to remove the outer skin of the fruit and the inner parchment skin. The pulp is fermented away, and then the inner seed is dried out. The result is the green coffee bean that is often shipped out and housed all over the world. Think of the green coffee beans much like any other bag of dry beans you might purchase from your local grocery store.
Your green coffee bean is then bought by local coffee shops and providers, and either sold green or sold pre-roasted to consumers. Most often the coffee bean is sold already roasted by the provider, as that is the quickest way to a pot of fresh coffee for most consumers. Many don’t have the time or the inclination to roast their own coffee beans and instead prefer to purchase gourmet coffee ready to go.
However, some consumers DO enjoy roasting their own coffee beans, and will prefer to purchase them green from their providers to ensure maximum freshness, aroma, and flavor once they are roasted and ready to be brewed. Also many hobbyist coffee lovers enjoy roasting their own beans just as a novelty gift to give to friends and family, and to test different roasting methods and adjust their coffee to their own tastes.
Just like a tomato is often mistaken for a vegetable, but is in fact a fruit, coffee isn’t in actuality a bean, despite its current moniker as ‘coffee bean’. Despite the very involved process we just discussed, it did in fact start out as a fruit! Who knew?

Coffee roasting is undertaken to transform green coffee into the fresh, aromatic roasts you can buy from your local coffee shop. This is done because without roasting, green coffee would make a pot of coffee that is virtually undrinkable. Coffee made from green coffee beans is extremely acidic and bitter flavored. Definitely NOT something you’d like to share a cup of with the neighbor!
Green coffee beans are very similar to any other dried bean you might purchase at the store. Just like a bag of navy beans can be transformed into a tasty pot of bean soup, green coffee beans allow a much longer shelf life and can still be transformed by coffee roasting into a deliciously drinkable brew.
The process of coffee roasting actually forces water out of the bean, causing dryness and expansion in the bean. The coffee roasting process causes some of the natural sugars to be transformed into CO2 and still others get caramelized. This creates the complex flavor nuances that are the hallmark of ‘good coffee’.
By the end of the coffee roasting process, the coffee bean you wind up with is much darker and about 18% lighter in weight, as well as about 50-100% larger in size than its green coffee bean counterpart. After coffee roasting, it’s customary to allow the coffee to ‘degas’ for a day or two. This helps to protect the flavors and aromas, as well as avoid an acid taste that can occur if you drink the coffee immediately after roasting.
However, don’t wait too long to drink! Just a week from the time the coffee is roasted it will have already started to lose some of its best aromas and flavors. That’s why if you can find a coffee provider close to home that does their own coffee roasting you can be assured of the best freshness possible.