Coffee

Coffee plants are grown in huge volumes in many parts of the world. The plant is cultivated in more than seventy countries, many of them warm climate countries, including Indonesia and Brazil, who are two of the world’s biggest coffee producers. The plants are most often grown in areas lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Other coffee plant growing areas include Africa, Central America, and India.

Although the plants are grown all over the world, the cultivation is pretty much the same process in each country, and can be a very complex process. There are two main species of coffee plants, which are known as the Arabica and the Robusta. They are small, evergreen trees, and the cultivation of coffee plants take place on plantations. The process of cultivating the plant can be labor intensive, with the amount of work needed depending on the method of farming used. This fact makes coffee cultivation more suitable for developing nations lying around the equatorial regions of the world. Coffee plants usually require temperatures that range from 15-24C without any severe fluctuations.

Coffee grows best on fields that are well drained and well aerated with deep soils, and the plants require a large supply of oxygen to provide to their root systems. Their need for large amounts of oxygen is the reason why aerated soils are the best for the cultivation and growing of coffee. The plants also require 1500mm to 2000mm of rainfall annually to provide the best results. If the rainfall is below the ideal mark then the deficit must be provided with additional moisture through irrigation means. For a higher quality of coffee, it is best to cultivate the plants at higher altitudes with an abundance of mist and clouds. The higher altitudes provide lower oxygen content, so the coffee plants take longer to mature, which helps development better flavor within the coffee beans.

Coffee trees require constant special attention from the farmer. These plants require a specific amount of shaded sunlight, regular watering and fertilizing. They must also be protected from pests and weeds to ensure they yield the best and the most coffee beans. Coffee flowers take approximately six to eight weeks to blossom, and the period the flower takes to blossom then harvest may last as long as nine months, depending on environmental and other factors. The red fruits of the coffee tree take six to eight months to ripen after the tree begins to bear fruit. Regular harvesting is required because coffee plant fruits may become over ripe after ten to fourteen days.

The fruits are often hand-picked in mountainous regions of the world, instead of using mechanical harvesters. Coffee beans are found in the fruits of the coffee plant, and are also hand-picked by manual laborers. The manual laborers must learn how to pick the best beans and discard bad beans, which requires the laborers to have much skill in that area. The hand-pickers must provide special attention to each bean, and must perform a thorough evaluation. After harvesting and picking the coffee beans must be processed, which is drying and roasting to make them ready for fresh grounding. The cultivation and growing process may be long and complicated, but it is a process that is the same throughout the world, it is needed to provide the best quality of coffee to consumers, and is necessary to give the best yield of coffee to growers.

Many of the different coffee harvests from around the world are often blended with one another in an endeavour to obtain the best flavor for the consumer, of course this is a different flavor for different roasters, what is a beautiful coffee for some is bitter to others and vice versa.

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Author: Heather Richards
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Coffee is an integral part of my family. We’ve had disputes, and discussions settled over coffee. Sometimes we have bargains and agreements done over coffee. In demonstrable fact coffee has given our family time to slow down and simply catch up.

With coffee so ever famous, it’s no wonder that it’s become a business life blood. Some companies even charge up to $5 for a cup, and yet people are still buying. All the benefits, all the wonder and taste but we have never really asked about the coffee bean to whom we have much to thank for.

Coffee Beans through the Years

A lot of people consider coffee a friend, and a shoulder to lean on. The coffee bean has many secrets which we as firm patrons of its fruits have yet to explore. It’s come a long way from its humble origins; the coffee bean has had many travels. Did you know that the lowly coffee bean was first venerated for its curative properties? The bean is also brewed for religious meditation purposes.

Coffee comes from berry producing trees encountered in the Middle East. The berry itself looks a lot like a very small cherry, red and agreeable. The berries are edible, they are considerably sweet. Each berry contains two locules, enclosed inside are the beans which is the cash crop. The coffee tree cannot tolerate frost or extremely cold weather that is why it is generally found on regions where there is ample sun and rain.

The coffee tree used to be a source for a tisane, where in the fruits, flowers and leaves where boiled in water, kind of like tea.

“Coffee beans, botanically inaccurate, are the seeds of the coffee plants”

It was the Arabs, who innovated upon the idea of making drinking coffee by roasting the dried coffee bean.

The Coffee Bean Travels

The story is that a Moslem stole some coffee beans from a farm in Arabia and brought them to his home in India. There he planted the coffee bean one by one and made it flourish, supplying one – third of India’s coffee produce.

From Arabia to India, word spread of the deliciously enchanting and aromatic coffee. Soon the French and the Dutch became enamored of the coffee bean as well. In their desire to produce the bewitching brew; the French brought coffee to Dijon ( a region in France ) unfortunately the coffee tree is not adept to cold weather, so the whole crop was wasted. The Dutch however was a lot cleverer. They planted the coffee seeds in Java where it thrived and became a reliable crop.

Even the famed King Louie XIV, who is captivated by coffee had a tree shipped to Paris, and built a Greenhouse especially for the Noble Tree. That same coffee tree is the fore bearer of the trees found in the South and Central America today.

There are 50 types of coffee trees in the world today. But only three are acknowledged to produce the best coffee bean of all time. No matter who you are, or where you’re from – have a quiet moment, enjoy a cup and let your mind wander.

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Author: Michael Patrick
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Did you know that the coffee plant actually grows into a tree? The coffee tree is an evergreen tree. Its broad leaves are a very shiny green with pointed ends that are sleekly reminiscent of arrowheads. Their leaves grow in pairs one on each side of their long thin branches as they flower and seed from the base of each pair of leaves growing along the stems or branches. Their tiny blooms flower into five petals with yellow stamen, as the seedpods progress into berry like cases for the seed. Inside each seed, two beans are usually found these beans are what are used to make coffee. The berries of the coffee plant can display as green in unripe berries, red in ripe berries and black of over ripened berries. The coffee plant can be rooted from cuttings as well as grown from seed and thrives best in shaded areas.

The coffee plant is native to Ethiopia then transported to Yemen of Africa. There these coffee beans were chewed raw for the extra energy that they provided the people. In Yemen Europeans found the plant as it was taken to Europe to be transplanted there. Arabians first made a drink with the green coffee beans however; by not having been roasted, the drink did not offer the brunette russet flavor of coffee, as we know it to be. The idea to roast the coffee bean before boiling it is believed to enter the picture back in the 1400s.

From Europe, the Venetian mercantile decided that coffee should be introduced to the wealthy people there and charged outrageous prices for the coffee that they purchased. Although it was suggested that coffee be banned it was however baptized by a pope of that time, coffee then gains great popularity as a good hearty drink. At that time while being introduced to the French, they upheld the brilliant Arabians for being so ingenious to have introduced the world to the strong drink of coffee and opened the first coffee house in Paris. Coffee houses have flourished since that time. Eventually, coffee made its rounds into Austria and Poland.

Introduced in the seventeen hundreds, to the new world by aid of colonial officials, coffee came to America as a high value cash crop and is today only second to oil, as a valuable trade commodity. Billions of dollars every year are in used in spending for the purchase of coffee, the world round. While a bit later the Boston Tea Party called for drinking coffee an American patriotic duty. Although the ruler of Prussia attempted to block the imports of coffee, the public outcry of injustice turned these thoughts of this around.

The year of 1886 found Maxwell House coffee to be named after a hotel in which the drink was served. The nineteen hundreds saw the introduction of the Hills Brothers packing roast coffee into tins, which were vacuum-sealed, thus bringing about the end of coffee mills and local roasting shops. The American soldiers of WWII were issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their kits of ration, while in America the widespread issue of hoarding led the coffee to be rationed.

As for coffee, Johann Sebastian Bach said it best in 1732 within his lyrical gist of the Coffee Cantata, Mm! how sweet the coffee tastes, more delicious than a thousand kisses, mellower than muscatel wine.

Bradley Thornton loves his coffee and likes to share his knowledge on the subject. One thing he specialises in is single serve coffee. Find out more by visiting the Keurig coffee maker website where you can explore the different Keurig coffee machine models such as the Keurig B50 coffee maker.

Author: Bradley Thornton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. The word coffee is believed to have been deduced from Kaffa, a place situated in Ethiopia, Africa, It came into existence around 800 A.D. and there are many legends and stories associated with discovery.

One such interesting story goes like this. One day a monk saw a goatherd imitating his sheep who were dancing from one shrub to another, grazing the cherry-red berries containing coffee beans. The monk was amazed at the goatherd’s caper on eating the beans. The monk took some of the berries for his fellow monks and that night they realized that they seemed to attain something that they felt was ‘divine stimulation’.

Other than the legends and stories there is also historical evidence about how the Africans of the same era used the coffee plant in different ways. Africans used what can be called primitive ‘Power Bars’ made of coffee and animal fat as a stimulant. They also made wine from the coffee-berry pulp. From Africa, coffee moved out towards Arabia via the Red Sea and then slowly made its way to the rest of the world.

Coffee, as we know it today came into existence around 1000 A.D. and this is when it was first roasted and brewed. By the 13th Century, coffee became popular with the Muslim holy men who found it a very convenient drink it to keep worshippers awake and send them in a tizzy. Then onwards, coffee traveled with the Muslims. Wherever Islam went, coffee traveled along. However, Arabians were cautious and did not want to share the plant with the world. They made sure that no coffee bean sprouted outside Arabia and coffee beans were boiled or parched to make them infertile before taking out of Arabia.

An enterprising Indian pilgrim cum smuggler, Baba Budan, strapped some fertile coffee beans to his stomach and left Mecca. These beans were ultimately responsible for the agricultural expansion of coffee, which later reached Europe’s colonies in the East.

From these colonies, coffee was traded by a Venice merchant who took it to Europe. The Europeans liked it so much that they wanted a constant supply of the beans. And later, it was the Dutch who set up the first European-owned coffee plantation in colonial Java in 1616. The Dutch were, however, not as cautious as the Arabians and they gifted coffee trees to the aristocracy all over Europe. Louis XIV was presented one such coffee tree in 1714, for his garden in Paris.

The coffee tree finally crossed the Atlantic with Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, a retired French naval officer. He smuggled a sprout with him to Martinique, a French Colony in the Caribbean after he was denied a clipping of the tree. Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu guarded the plant religiously. When the ship got caught in a storm de Clieu nurtured the pant with half of the water that he was rationed. Ultimately, the sprout flourished in Martinique and in the next 50 years more than 18 million coffee trees were grown there.

By 1727, Brazil had realized the potential of the plant and wanted a share in the coffee pie. Unable to get the plant through fair means, they dispatched Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta, allegedly to mediate in a border dispute, to French Guiana. Avoiding the heavily guarded coffee plantations, he chose to take the easy route of befriending the governor’s wife who slyly presented him a bouquet spiked with coffee seedlings on his farewell dinner. Coffee had now entered Brazil, a land of extremely fertile farms.

From 800 A.D. in Africa to 1727 in Brazil, the coffee plant had traveled through Middle East, South East and Europe and then to South America. Production of coffee reached dizzying heights due to the enormous harvests of Brazil’s fertile lands. This boom in production, apart from anything else, was instrumental in turning coffee, an elitist drink till then, into a drink of the masses.

Initially considered as a poor substitute for alcohol by the American colonists, its popularity grew when tea from Britain became scarce during the Revolutionary War. During and after the American Civil War, coffee had gained a premier position and was being increasingly accepted. Later, advancement in brewing technology ultimately secured its place as an everyday beverage of America.

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Author: Mel Ng
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Coffee Beans

Coffee Beans are derived from coffee plants found in tropical and sub-tropical countries primarily in Central and South America, Africa, and Southern Asia. Though some might claim that coffee is the second largest traded commodity after oil, a more accurate statement as defined by the UNCTD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) is that coffee remains the second most valuable commodity exported by developing countries.

Depending on how statistics are interpreted, coffee could have annual industry value from as low as $22 billion to as high as $90 billion. What is indisputable is that coffee sustains a global workforce of well over 20 million and remains one of the most popular beverages in the world.

History of Coffee

The origin of coffee is ostensibly traced back to the 9th century. It was at this time in Ethiopia where a goat herder noticed heightened activity in one of his goats after it ate a few coffee beans from a coffee tree. Though an amusing story, a more accurate account dates back to the 15th century where monks in Yemen documented the stimulating effects of coffee.

Coffee Bean Types

The flavours, aromas and strength of coffee are determined by two primary types of coffee bean; Arabica and Robusta. Originally sourced from Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, Arabica coffee is grown globally and accounts for an estimated two-thirds of coffee production. The flavour of Arabica is often characterized by a variety of sweet, fragrant, chocolaty and hazel notes. Robusta originally sourced from central and western Africa accounts for an estimated one-third of coffee production. Robusta derives its name from the fact that the tree is more robust than its Arabica counterpart. Robusta grows in a greater number of conditions, at a faster rate and requires less care than Arabica. Finally, Robusta contains twice the caffeine as found in Arabica and is sharper as well as more bitter in flavour.

Popular coffee will typically consist of either a 100% Arabica base or a combination of Arabica and Robusta with the higher percentage skewed toward Arabica and a lower one to Robusta. In the simplest terms, by varying the ratio of Arabica to Robusta, the end product with regards to flavour, aroma, strength and colour are impacted.

Roasting

The process of coffee roasting alters the entire cellular structure of the coffee bean transforming green coffee beans into the commonly recognized brown coffee bean. Depending on the degree of temperature and length of time, a coffee bean’s colour, taste, smell and size are altered which will in turn impact the flavour.

In applying heat to beans, moisture is lost creating a reaction called pyrolysis. Roasters listen for an audible crack to measure the stages in the bean development during roasting. It is here where starch is converted into sugar and protein is broken down. More importantly, this process causes the coffee bean to release caffeol – coffee oil – which produces the essence of the prized coffee drink.

Getting the roast right is a fine balance. By applying too much heat caffeol will burn. In not applying enough heat the caffeol will not be produced.

Flavoured Coffee

It may be considered a recent trend in the world of coffee, however adding flavours to coffee has been practiced for years. Consider that in the Middle East, coffee with cardamom has been a common tradition over hundreds of years. In Mexico, adding cinnamon to coffee has also been a common practice. The two methods of flavouring are to either add the flavour directly after roasting or to add syrup to a coffee that already has been prepared.

Andrew Greenwood is a member of the Fairfax Coffee Web Team. Fairfax have been in the coffee machine business since 1945 and are on hand to offer impartial advice on choosing the perfect coffee machine for you.

Author: Andrew J Greenwood
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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