The plant
| The coffee plant originated in Abyssinia. With time it came to be grown in all the word’s tropical regions. The biggest coffee producer today is Brazil: its climate is perfect for ensuring even maturation of the fruit and optimal growth of coffee beans. The coffee plant is a small evergreen tree, a member of the family Rubiaceae and the genus Coffea. There are more than 60 species of coffee bushes. The most common are arabica and Robusta. Arabica is the oldest species and has a characteristic delicate aroma and pleasant intense flavour. Robusta grows faster than Arabica; its aroma is strong and generous, and it produces a particularly stimulating cup of coffee. After flowering for about two days, the fruits begin to mature. They are yellowish green at first, turning dark red when ripe. Each fruit contains two seeds, each containing one coffee bean. As soon as the berries are ripe, the beans are hauled, calibrated, matured and finally roasted. There are two ways to collect coffee beans: either by “stripping”, involving random collection of all coffee beans, including those which are not yet completely ripe; or by “picking”, and collection of ripe beans only, repeated over and over again by hand. The coffee plant starts producing fruit after a few years, but flowers twice a year, yielding an excellent harvest. |
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