Coffee 101: A brief overview

While most of us are familiar with coffee as a beverage, the journey of each coffee from seedling to cup is not widely appreciated. In this post I will attempt to provide a brief overview of the origins of coffee, its taxonomy and the conditions needed for growth.

First of all, it is worth mentioning that coffee is an agricultural product. It is the seed of a cherry, as seen above, which is green in colour once the fruity layers have been removed. Coffee is seasonal just like any other agricultural product and it is important to bear in mind it's beginnings as the seed of a fruit.

The Origins of Coffee:
Ethiopia and parts of South Sudan along the great rift valley in East Africa are widely accepted as the birthplace of coffee where it still grows wild today. Thousands of years of natural mutations have produced an incredible variety of coffee plants, each with their own growth characteristics and flavour profiles. While we do not know the exact date of discovery it was likely sometime around the 11th century in Ethiopia - there are mythical stories around the discovery of coffee, most notably that of the goat herder, but they're unsubstantiated. From there it spread to Yemen and then the rest of the world as shown in the image below.

Taxonomy:
The coffea genus contains around 120 species but only two are commercially relevant, Arabica and Canephora or Robusta. There are around 300 documented varieties (with more being developed all the time) of Arabica each with different growing qualities and flavour attributes. As mentioned above, coffee grows wild in Ethiopia and there are many undocumented heirloom varieties.

As different species of plant there are distinguishable genetic differences between Arabica and Robusta. Robusta plants can grow in harsh conditions and are much less susceptible to various plant diseases and pests. It contains around twice the amount of caffeine which acts as a natural pesticide allowing it to survive in low lying tropical conditions. Interestingly, one of the few plants that would grow on the napalmed fields of Vietnam was Robusta which is now the second largest producer in the world.

The high level of caffeine has been seen as desirable for use in European espresso blends to give extra "kick." On the other hand, Robusta's typically have very flat acidity and offer much less aromatic complexity than that of Arabica. As such they are usually sold at a much lower price for the commercial market.

Arabica makes up some 60% of the global coffee market and will be the focus of future posts

Growing conditions:
There are three major growing regions for Arabica: Africa, South East Asia and the Americas with each region producing distinctly different flavour characteristics. Arabica requires very specific growing conditions. Ideally it needs high rainfall, average daily temperatures of between 18-24C, highly fertile soil and, for the best Arabica, high altitude. As such coffee is found only within the equatorial band where these climate requirements are met. Mt Kenya is a great example of the ideal growing conditions as the mineral rich volcanic soils, temperate climate and its high altitude lead to the production of exceptional cup quality.

This is a very brief overview of the early stages of coffee. I will follow up with more detailed posts with the view to slowly encompass the journey of seed to cup and the many varying contributors to the final flavour profile.

If you have any questions, challenges or comments otherwise please let me know.