Edit: if you ain’t got nothing nice to say don’t say nothing at all
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couldn’t agree more, i legit don’t know what i’d do without them!
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I thought this might interest you guys - it’s written by a friend of mine who grows rare tropical fruit like Durians, Mangosteens etc. I’m a bit of a rare fruit enthusiast so visited his farm and learned a lot of interesting stuff like this.
His property previously had one of the early coffee plantations in Australia.
He talks a bit about the history of cultivation in Australia and some good practical tips on how it was dried etc. that might be of interest.
When the coffee prices went through the roof in the 1970’s the harvested the wild coffee to sell
Coffee plants are commonly grown as a garden plant in the tropics - they do well as an understory plant alongside fruit trees etc so are great in a permaculture type garden.
Wild coffee plants often escape into the rainforest because the red berries are loved by birds.
The red coffee berries are quite nice to eat as is actually, and you can also chew on the beans I think which I expect would give you full effects.
The flavor is mild, sweet and fairly neutral.
I live next door to the botanic gardens and there are plants growing there with minimal care on the edge of an orchard next to mangroves - seems to do well but they do better on the higher altitude table
ands when grown commercially.
There are probably 5-10 or more large plantations there now - mostly with a tourist shopfront as well - definitely worth a visit if you come to far north Queensland
A bit more about the history of coffee in Australia too
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I walked over to one of the stands of coffee trees next door to get some photos to show you guys
As you can see most of these coffee berries are still green and underripe so not ready for harvest.
They are best to pick when red but the light pink one is fine to eat.
You can see it’s definitely coffee beans inside!
I ate this one and the flavour is as I remembered sweet with a mild berry flavor similar like many small berries you see on ornamental trees the birds like.
I chewed the two beans up too - the flavor is very slightly bitter/peppery and the shell is a bit papery (similar to peanut husk or bits of popcorn shell)
No obvious effect from two beans but I’d already had 5+ coffees today so it’s a drop in the ocean 
Photos below
Small stand of coffee trees - approx 8-9 feet tall
Closer up we can see the beans clustered along the stem. One is pink/red - almost ready.
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Close up of this almost ripe bean. Birds probably pick them off as soon as they ripen.
Definitely coffee beans!
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awesome! the plants themselves are beautiful, especially when plump with those red berries. i was always kind of surprised, they’re more like large shrubs than the trees i imagined.
photos of the trees in bloom make me swoon a little, white flowers popping everywhere, it’s lovely.
I’ve seen some very happy, completely unattended plants in Hawaii too, idk if it was there bc of people or birds dropping seeds but they seem to thrive in the tropics wherever they land. high altitude i know they love too, as they’re indigenous to the highlands of Ethiopia that makes sense.
I’ve chewed a few before right off the tree and yeah that bell peppery/sweet flavor was really interesting to me. definitely would do it more often if i had that kind of access to fresh berries
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It has a lettuce-like nutrient profile (think Maxi-Gro). It is also shade grown. I’m not sure what the DLI would be.
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