About coffee

The coffee plant

Coffee is a plant, a member of the genus Coffea in the family Rubiaceae and is found in areas with lots of sunshine, moderate rainfall, altitudes up to 6000ft, frost free and average temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Although usually pruned to a height of about 8 foot to make harvesting easier, the plant can grow to about 32 foot.

The coffee plant has lush, shiny green leaves attached to long thin branches. When the plant is in season, small white flowers are seen coming from the base of the leaves. After pollination, the flowers are replaced by a ruby-like fruit, the coffee bean. Each of the fruits, usually referred to as cherries, contains two seeds (beans). When only one bean is produced, this is known as a ‘pea berry’. The cherries are bright red and reach the size of a grape, then harvesting takes place.

A mature coffee plant produces approximately 2000 coffee cherries per year, which is equivalent to about ½ kilo of roasted coffee. It takes about 3 years for a coffee plant to mature and will then produce coffee beans for about 15 years.

Arabica and Robusta beans

There are more than 20 species within the genus Coffea but only two, Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (commonly know as robusta) are produced in vast amounts to produce the worlds coffee demands.

Both species of coffee are very different from each other in taste, caffeine content, cultivation conditions and disease resistance. The arabica bean is typically grown at heights between 1500ft and 6000ft and requires better soils to grow. Due to this and also the fact that the bean is considered tastier, the price of arabica beans is far higher against robusta beans. The Robusta beans being more easily farmed and more resilient to disease and hence cheaper, are used to produce both the instant coffee and the mass-produced ground coffees found in supermarkets everywhere.

Find out how how the coffee bean goes from coffee bean to cup!