For a tree grown in over 70 countries, from Indonesia to Brazil, it’s curious how narrow a range of conditions is required to produce quality ‘beans’ and how relatively small the total output is.
The word ‘beans’ is deliberately in single-quote marks, since the thing that gets roasted and ground to make the drink isn’t really a bean at all, it’s a seed.
In particular, it’s the seed of a fruit that grows on trees that can easily reach twenty feet or more. Some wild varieties grow to over 45 feet or 15m. Most of those seeds come in a pair, though there is a variety that produces only one (the peaberry). The berry resembles a cranberry, with a sweet pulp covered by a membrane called a silverskin.
In a band around the equator from approximately 25 degrees north or south, comes the overwhelming majority of the world’s coffee
Loamy, good-draining soil is needed and also helpful is high humidity – plenty of mist and cloud at the high elevations, over 3000 ft (915m) for the good stuff. At these elevations the oxygen content is lower, so the trees take longer to mature.
The robusta, or coffea canephora, goes into making the majority of coffee because it can be grown at lower altitudes and is more disease resistant. But it’s the high-altitude coffea arabica that forms the base of a gourmet cup.
Diffuse light and moderate winds are helpful, both of which are sometimes produced by deliberately growing in the shelter and shade. By contrast, wine grapes like hot sun and lots of it.
Once planted, the tree takes about five years to mature to first crop and even then a single tree will only make enough for about two pounds (1 kilogram) of coffee.
Those two pounds equal about 2,000 beans, (correct or not, it’s the standard term), usually hand-picked by manual laborers. Manual they may be, but ignorant they are not. Coffee bean harvesting is a skill developed over time, where the picker learns to select good beans and discard the bad. Bean by individual bean. That’s only one reason coffee is high priced.
The trees have broad, dark green leaves and produce a flower that resembles Jasmine. Some – in Brazil and Mexico, for example, – blossom over a six to eight week period. In countries that lie along the equator such as Kenya and Colombia, though, a tree can have mature berries growing alongside still ripening ones. That’s part of what makes picking such a specialty.
Blossom to harvest may cover a period of up to nine months depending on the weather and other factors and the cycle will be carried out for the life of the tree – about 20-25 years. With the best cultivation technology, a good harvest will be between 6,600 lbs (3,000 kg) and 8,800 lbs (4,000 kg) per hectare. (One hectare is about 2.47 acres.)
From these inaccessible regions, where conditions are harsh, the berries are brought down and processed to make up the world’s second largest commodity (by annual dollar volume).
So, the next time you savor that brew, give a thought to the long journey it traveled to reach your cup. It might make that high price seem less steep.
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There can be as large a variety of beans and Java’s from around the globe as there are grapes and types of wine – and because a great deal delight is to be experienced in tasting them.
Skipping across to the Hawaiian Islands, the selected Kona issues forth in both medium and dark roast. The last mentioned holds a very light taste with the medium roast creating for slightly more bodied flavor. Only the espresso
South of the boarder of the USA the Colombian embodies, rightly so,a world-renowned reputation. The La Esperanza from Tolima, for illustration, is produced at nearly 6,000 feet and the effect shows. Elegant with a refined scent and cherry-like it’s suggestions of milk chocolate and pipe tobacco. Who thought such an inter-mixture could in reality taste extraordinary?
Naturally, the world’s 2nd biggest producer has a great deal more to offer up. The Supremo creates a complex brew with hints of vanilla and suggestions of bittersweet chocolate. Be sure to drink this beverage hot, because the flavor disappears fast.
Running off to Africa we discover a Tanzanian Peaberry, farmed along the southerly slopes of Mt. Mount Kilimanjaro. Peaberries bear a identifying shape, constituting a single egg-shaped bean instead of the common pair of flat-sided beans. One outcome is that it will have a higher acidity and light body. Tourists that climb the celebrated mountain can enjoy a warm cupful along their way up.
While we are here in the birthplace of civilization, consider a side trip to the recognized home of coffee
Hop a flight to Vietnam and we can enjoy a Robusta from Lampung. The way that the wash and dry and polish the beans makes for a woody, astringent cup of coffee that can compete well with its more high-toned Arabica cousin.
A run over to Indonesia finds us in Sumatra. This region is long known for their products from the Lake Toba region. You will find a light roast along with a cup of coffee that is sweet and flowery. Yet the original jasmine-like coffee flower has been retained that produces an astringent cup with cherry overtones.
While we are here lets not forget about the northern provinces where the serve up a traditional dark roast that gives a spicy, tropical fruit brew with hints of grapefruit and cedar.
Lets take a trek to India to take in another landmark of the coffee world – the Monsoon Malabar. This is called the product of three months of the wet winds. You will find the puffy yellow beans make for a pungent brew with hints of apricot. Now we have come this far, so don’t leave without sampling a Jumboor. It has sweet raisin tones.
So now lets stopover in Jamaica while on our journey. Here you will discover an unusual source of coffee beans
As we come to the end of this excursion, we are satisfied and sated. Let us close our book of ‘Coffee- A Tour Of the Coffee World – Part 2′ for now. With all this caffeine in our systems, we can go organize another trip soon.
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