• The history of coffee
• A botanical outline
• Species, Growing coffee
• Harvesting and treatment

The history of coffee

For us Westerners coffee is three hundred years old, but in the East it was widespread as a beverage, in every level of society, since earlier times. The first definite dates go back to 800 b.c.e.; but already Homer, and many Arabian legends, tell the story of a mysterious black and bitter beverage with powers of stimulation. In the year 1000 about, Avicenna was administering coffee as a medecine. And there is a strange story, dating from 1400, of a Yemeni shepherd who, having observed some goats cropping reddish berries from a bush, and subsequently becoming restless and excited, reported the incident to a monk. The latter boiled the berries, and then distilled a bitter beverage, rich in strength, and capable of dispersing sleep and weariness.

However the discovery occurred, the fact remains that the coffee plant was born in Africa in an Ethiopian region (Kaffa). From there it spread to Yemen, Arabia and Egypt, where it developed enormously, and entered popular daily life.

By the late 1500’s the first traders were selling coffee in Europe, thus introducing the new beverage into Western life and custom. Most of the coffee exported to European markets came from the ports of Alexandria and Smyrna. But the increasing needs of a growing market, improved botanical knowledge of the coffee plant, and high taxes imposed at the ports of shipment, led dealers and scientists to try transplanting coffee in other countries. The Dutch in their overseas colonies (Batavia and Java), the French in 1723 in Martinique, and later on in the Antilles, and then the English, Spanish and Portuguese, started to invade the tropical belts of Asia and America.

In 1727 coffee growing was started in North Brazil, but the poor climatic conditions gradually shifted the crops, first to Rio de Janeiro and finally (1800-1850) to the States of San Paolo and Minas, where coffee found its ideal environment. Coffee growing began to develop here, until it became the most important economic resource of Brazil.

It was precisely in the period 1740-1805 that coffee growing reached its top spread, in Center and South America.

Although coffee was born in Africa, plantations and home consumption are comparatively recent introductions. Actually it was Europeans who introduced it again, into their colonies, where, thanks to favourable land and climatic conditions, it was able to thrive.

A botanical outline

Linnaeus classified the coffee plant in the Rubiacee family, to which belongs also, for example, the gardenia. The name given to it by the great naturalist was "Coffea". There are some sixty species of it growing spontaneously in the subtropical areas of Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Madagascar, that are without any commercial importance.

Only about ten species are cultivated in different parts of the world.

While the wild plant can reach even ten-twelve metres in height, the plantation one reaches a height varying between three and five metres, except in Colombia where it rarely exceeds two metres. This makes the harvest and flowering easier, and cultivation more economical.

The leaves are, depending on the growth stage, deep green, light green and bronze yellow. Flowers are white, in clusters, and sweet-scented like the Spanish jasmine. Flowers soon give way to a red berry, more or less dark, depending on the plant variety.

At first sight, the fruit is like a big cherry both in size and in colour. The berry is coated with a thin film (epicarp or esocarpo) containing a sugary mucilaginous flesh (mesocarp). Inside the pulp there are the seeds in the form of two beans coupled at their flat surface. Beans are in turn coated with a kind of parchment, very resistant, and golden yellow (called endocarp or pergamino).

When peeled, the real bean appears, coated -in its turn- with another very thin silvery film.

The bean is bluish green verging on bronze, depending on the species, and is at the most 11 millimeters long and 8 millimeters wide. For each species there are several varieties, each one distinguished by its own size, colour and resistance to disease.

Species, Growing

The principal coffee species grown today in the most important producing countries are two: Arabica and Robusta. From their graftings have been obtained several subtypes differently indicated with the names of the producing countries.

Coffea Arabica, a valuable species, has been grown and selected for several centuries, and represents three-quarters of world coffee production. As the name suggests, it comes from Arabia, and thrives in land rich in minerals. Its better-known sub-varieties are the Moka, Maragogipe, San Ramon, Columnaris, and Bourbon. The Arabica coffees produced in Brazil take the collective name of Brazilian Coffees; those from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala, Salvador, Haiti and Santo Domingo are called Milds. There are also Arabica coffees that come from Africa. The Arabica makes a flavoury full-bodied coffee, sharp in taste, with a rather low caffeine content. There are, however, different tastes, due to the different crop varieties. And there are so many varieties on the market that one can assert that some low-quality Arabica species are actually inferior to the best qualities of Coffea Robusta. Arabica beans look slightly elongated, with greenish-blue shades.

Coffea Robusta is a variety that can be over 12 metres high. It grows quickly in altitudes up to 600 metres, and is more resistant to parasites. Discovered in the Congo in 1898, this hardy species is widely spread, especially in Africa, Asia and Indonesia, where the climate is unsuitable for Coffea Arabica. It represents about one quarter of total world production. Because of their higher content of caffeine (about twice as much as Arabica) and strong character, Robustas are used mostly in specialty blends. Overuse and/or improper processing can result in cheap- and bitter-tasting coffee, with pronounced "woodiness", a typical characteristic of natural Robustas from Africa. Washed varieties from Indonesia are rare and particularly prized for use in certain blends. Its beans are typically small, rounded and brownish-yellow in appearance.

Coffee plants need special conditions if they are to thrive and give a satisfactory crop. These are:

• Favourable climate: areas with hot-wet or hot-temperate climate, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, with frequent rains and temperatures varying from 15 to 25 Degrees C;
• Soil deep, hard, permeable, well-irrigated, with well-drained subsoil. The best lands are the hilly ones, those cut into a mountainside, of volcanic nature with disintegrating rocks or from just-tilled woods. The perfect altitude is between 600 and 1200 metres, though some varieties thrive at 2000-2200 metres, and others at under 400 metres- or even on level land;
• Careful culture, aimed at protecting the plants at every stage of growth, thus:
  • Selection of the seeds from the healthier, more luxuriant and long-lived plants
  • Sowing, beginning in sheltered and shaded nurseries from which -after about six months- the seedlings so obtained are moved to plantations, with all the earth surrounding the roots, in the rain season.

Depending on the growing areas (tropical or sub-tropical) coffee plants are alternated with other plants to shield them from wind and excessive sunlight. Treated and protected in this way, the plants will start to yield fruit only when three or four years old.

Harvesting and treatment

Harvesting is made in different months of the year (depending on the geographic position of the producing countries), and it follows subsequent stages in accordance with maturing of the berries. Harvesting time depends on the geographic situation, and the climate and altitude conditions, and it can vary greatly therefore according to the various producing countries.

Ripe fruits can be plucked by hand, or picked with small rakes, or else brought down to earth with poles: the two first systems are used where low-cost labour is available, and they are more selective; the pole system is quicker, but less careful; and it calls for further operations of berry-cleaning. Where the terrain allows it, harvesting can today be effected with special automatic machines.

Only when the plant is five years old can it be counted upon to give a regular yield. This is between 400 grams and two kilos of "arabica" beans for each plant, and 600 grams and two kilos of "robusta" beans: one might say that for 500 grams of beans one will need 2.5 kilos of berries.

Since coffee is a very delicate product, the beans must be extracted within a few days after the harvesting. This is to prevent the pulp and surrounding films from fermenting. Seed extraction can be carried out in two ways:

• the "DRY" process, producing so-called "Natural" coffees; this is adopted mostly in Brazil and Western Africa. Desiccation takes place via sun exposure on lands reserved for that purpose, and the berries are continuously stirred to expose them evenly to the sun’s rays for a period of 15 to 20 days. Alternatively, after two or three days, coffee can be put in drying rooms, where it is dried by the heat of a burner at 45-60 degrees C.
• the "WET" process, which is more demanding and difficult (and expensive). From this process are obtained the so-called "Washed" or "Mild" coffees. This method is adopted in Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Kenya and Tanzania. The processing stages are: berry cleaning, maceration, removal of pulp, fermentation, desiccation, and peeling; and final operations designed to remove any residual impurities, and to give glossiness to the beans.

At this point, beans are put into sacks, generally weighing 60 kilos (approx. 132 lbs.), and stored in special sheltered rooms, where they are ready to start their journey -from sack to package- towards the consuming countries.