Coffea arabica is a species of
coffeeCoffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of "coffee cherries" that grow on trees in over 70 countries. It has been said that green coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world behind crude oil. Due to its...
indigenous to
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
and
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
. It is also known as the "coffee shrub of Arabia", "mountain coffee" or "arabica coffee".
Coffea arabica is believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated, being grown in southwest Arabia for well over 1,000 years. It is considered to produce better coffee than the other major commercially grown coffee species,
Coffea canephoraCoffea canephora is a species of coffee which has its origins in western Africa. It is grown mostly in Africa and Brazil, where it is often called Conillon. It is also grown in Southeast Asia where French colonists introduced it in the late 19th century...
(robusta).
Arabica contains less
caffeineCaffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that is a psychoactive stimulant drug. Caffeine was discovered by a German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, in 1819. He coined the term kaffein, a chemical compound in coffee, which in English became caffeine...
than any other commercially cultivated species of coffee. Wild plants grow to between 9 and 12 m tall, and have an open branching system; the
leavesIn botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin. There is continued debate about whether the flatness of leaves evolved to expose the chloroplasts to more light or to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. In...
are opposite, simple elliptic-ovate to oblong, 6-12 cm long and 4-8 cm broad, glossy dark green. The
flowerA flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds...
s are white, 10-15 mm in diameter and grow in axillary clusters. The
fruitThe term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants disseminate seeds, and the presence of seeds indicates that a structure is most likely a fruit, though not all seeds come from...
is a
drupeIn botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...
(though commonly called a "berry") 10-15 mm in diameter, maturing bright red to purple and typically contain two
seedA seed , referred to as a kernel in some plants, is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s (the coffee 'bean').
Cultivation
Coffea arabica takes about seven years to mature fully and does best with 1-1.5 meters (about 40-59 inches) of rain, evenly distributed throughout the year. It is usually cultivated between 1,300 and 1,500 m altitude, but there are plantations as low as sea level and as high as 2,800 m. The plant can tolerate low temperatures, but not frost, and it does best when the temperature hovers around 20 °C (68 °F). Commercial
cultivarA cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of desired characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when propagated it retains those characteristics....
s mostly only grow to about 5 m, and are frequently trimmed as low as 2 m to facilitate harvesting. Unlike
Coffea canephoraCoffea canephora is a species of coffee which has its origins in western Africa. It is grown mostly in Africa and Brazil, where it is often called Conillon. It is also grown in Southeast Asia where French colonists introduced it in the late 19th century...
,
Coffea arabica prefers to be grown in light shade.
Two to four years after planting
Coffea arabica produces small, white and highly fragrant flowers. The sweet fragrance resembles the sweet smell of
jasmineJasmine is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family , with about 200 species, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the Old World...
flowers. When flowers open on sunny days, this results in the greatest numbers of berries. This can be a curse however as coffee plants tend to produce too many berries; this can lead to an inferior harvest and even damage yield in the following years as the plant will favor the ripening of berries to
the detriment of its own health. On well kept plantations this is prevented by pruning the tree. The flowers themselves only last a few days leaving behind only the thick dark green leaves. The berries then begin to appear. These are as dark green as the foliage, until they begin to ripen, at first to yellow and then light red and finally darkening to a glossy deep red. At this point they are called 'cherries' and are ready for picking. The berries are oblong and about 1 cm long. Inferior coffee results from picking them too early or too late, so many are picked by hand to be able to better select them, as they do not all ripen at the same time. They are sometimes shaken off the tree onto mats, which means that ripe and unripe berries are collected together.
The trees are difficult to cultivate and each tree can produce anywhere from 0.5-5 kg of dried beans, depending on the tree's individual character and the climate that season. The real prize of this
cash cropIn agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...
are the beans inside. Each berry holds two
loculeA locule is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism ....
s containing the beans. The coffee beans are actually two seeds within the fruit, there is sometimes a third seed or one seed, a
peaberryPeaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean. Normally the fruit of the coffee plant develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry, but sometimes only one of the two seeds gets fertilized so there is nothing to flatten it. This oval bean is known as Peaberry...
in the fruits at tips of the branches. These seeds are covered in two membranes, the outer one is called the 'parchment' and the inner one is called the 'silver skin'.
In perfect conditions, like those of Java, trees are planted at all times of the year and are harvested year round. In less ideal conditions, like those in parts of
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
, the trees have a season and are harvested only in winter. The plants are vulnerable to damage in poor growing conditions and are also more vulnerable to pests than the Robusta plant. Gourmet coffees are almost exclusively high-quality mild varieties of coffea arabica, like
Colombian coffeeColombian Coffee is a Protected designation of origin granted by the European Union that applies to the coffee produced in Colombia The Colombian coffee has been recognized worldwide as having high quality and distinctive taste...
.
Arabica coffee production in IndonesiaIndonesia produced 420,000 metric tons of coffee in 2007. Of this total, 271,000 tons were exported and 148,000 tons were consumed domestically. Of the exports, 25% are Coffea arabica and the balance is Coffea canephora...
began in 1699. Indonesian coffees, such as Sumatran and Java, are known for heavy body and low acidity. This makes them ideal for blending with the higher acidity coffees from Central America and East Africa.
History and legend
According to
legendA legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
, human cultivation of coffee began after
goatThe domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
were seen mounting each other after eating the leaves and fruits of the coffee tree. In reality, human consumption of coffee fruits probably began long before humans took up
pastoralismPastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, sheep, and so forth. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh...
. In Ethiopia there are still some locales where people drink a
tisaneA herbal tea, tisane, or ptisan is an herbal infusion made from anything other than the leaves of the tea bush , which originates from both China and the Middle East.-Etymology:...
made from the leaves of the coffee tree.
The first written record of coffee made from roasted coffee beans comes from
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
ian scholars who wrote that it was useful in prolonging their working hours. The Arab innovation of making a brew from roasted beans, spread first among the Egyptians and
TurksThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
and later on found its way around the world.
Research
Brazilian biologists have found an Ethiopian
Coffea arabica that naturally contains very little caffeine. Maria Bernadete Silvarolla, a researcher of
Instituto Agronomico de CampinasThe Instituto Agronômico de Campinas is a research and development institution affiliated to the Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios , of the Secretary of Agriculture of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, with headquarters in the city of Campinas...
(IAC), published findings in the journal
NatureNature is a prominent British scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. Most scientific journals are now highly specialized, and Nature is among the few journals that still publish original research articles across a wide range of scientific...
about these strains of
Coffea arabica plants. While beans of normal
Coffea arabica plants contains 12 milligrams of caffeine per gram of dry mass, these newly found mutants contain only 0.76 milligrams of caffeine per gram with all the taste of normal coffee. ln addition, coffee beans have been discovered in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, a region called Sardauna.
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