Coffee beans are actually the pit of a fruit called the coffee cherry. The coffee cherry is bright red when it is ripe and ready to be picked, which is why coffee beans are sometimes referred to as red cherries. Once the coffee cherries are picked, the beans are removed from the fruit and then dried. Drying can be done in one of two ways: either by sun-drying or by machine-drying. Sun-dried coffee beans take longer to dry (about 4-5 weeks) but they tend to have a more robust flavor. Machine-dried coffee beans only take a few days to dry but they can lose some of their flavor in the process.