Can you eat coffee beans like regular beans? The surprising answer
                                
                                
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                                    4 min read                                
                            
                                Hundreds of years ago, before coffee was brewed into a beverage, early tribes in eastern Africa would mix coffee beans with animal fat to create an energy-boosting snack. While the practice isn't new, the question of whether coffee beans can be consumed in the same manner as legumes is a modern curiosity with a surprisingly simple, albeit nuanced, answer.