Is Growing Your Own Cup of Coffee Worth It? Here's What TikTok Found

It's a universal experience, at least every once in a while, to roll out of bed and brew a cup of coffee while simultaneously running out the door in the morning. On the weekends however, most of us have the luxury of taking the time to break out the French press or whip up a latte—and it feels like a whole experience. But taking it a step further: What happens if you try to grow your own cup of coffee?

This is the question @epicgardening posed in a recent TikTok to their 2.8 million followers—and with over 22,000 likes, it's clear others are also curious.

The creator started growing an Arabica plant, which produces one of the most widely-consumed coffee varieties in the world, three years ago in hopes of getting the answer.

“But there was just one problem,” he said in his video. “I don’t live in an area where coffee naturally grows.”

That area is San Diego, famously sunny and well-tempered all year. Arabica coffee plants are native to Ethiopia, which gets much more humid than California. There’s not much you can do about the climate, but @epicgardening put the plant in his greenhouse with plenty of water, fertilizer, and sun and “hoped for the best.”

Eventually, the plant produced some coffee cherries: small, round stone fruits that start out green and develop into a deep red. They’re fragrant, and you can eat them as they are—but don't expect a roasted coffee flavor. To turn a coffee cherry into the coffee you're familiar with, you’ll have to open the fruit up. Once you do that, you'll find a traditional coffee bean.

In the TikTok, you see the creator remove the beans and soak them in water for three days to remove the parchment layer. This results in a green coffee bean. He then roasts them on the stove down to "a pathetically small three grams.”

Mixing it with water and taking a sip, the result warrants a laugh.

“It does taste a little bit like coffee,” he said. “It has more of like a super light roasted flavor, but it actually is quite nice.”

The verdict: It's possible to grow your own cup of coffee at home, but it takes years of effort. On a daily basis, you're better off making your Dunkin' run or using your trusted espresso machine—but if you're passionate about coffee and want to experiment with a new gardening project, you may want to look into how to grow an Arabica plant (if your climate allows for it).