Coffee trees and three kinds of native species

Coffee trees and three kinds of native species

Coffee trees are evergreen shrubs or trees belonging to the Rubiaceae family. Wild coffee trees can grow to a height of 5 to 10 meters, but coffee trees planted in the manor are often cut to a height of less than 2 meters in order to increase fruit and facilitate harvesting. Coffee tree opposite leaves are long oval, smooth leaves, the end of the branch is very long, few branches, and the flowers are white, open at the base of the petiole connecting the branch. The ripe coffee berries look like cherries and are bright red with sweet flesh and contain a pair of seeds, namely coffee beans (Coffee Beans).

Arabica bean coffee trees can be divided into two main varieties: Arabica (Coffea Arabica) and Robusta (Coffea Robusta/Coffea Canephora). In addition, there are some minor species, such as Liberian species (Coffea Liberica) and Alabasta species (Coffea Arabusta), but they are rare on the market.

[the picture shows Liberia growing beans]

Robusta beans Robusta coffee trees can grow on flat land, it has a strong resistance to disease, and the yield is higher. Compared with Arabica beans, Robusta beans are more round in appearance, with a slightly inflated side with cracks in the middle, and straight grooves reminiscent of soybeans, while Arabica beans are oval and zigzag, a bit like half a peanut.

[picture shows Robusta Doudou]

Generally speaking, Robusta beans are poor in taste, have 2 to 3 times the caffeine content of Arabica beans, and are cheap, mostly for the large coffee industry to produce instant coffee or low-cost comprehensive products. The coffee trees planted in Arabica are suitable for planting on fertile hillsides with good drainage at an altitude of about 1,000 to 2,000 meters. The climate for growth should not be too humid, but it still requires a continuous rainy season and abundant rainfall.

During the day, they like mild but not very hot temperatures and less than two hours of direct sunshine, so if they lack the afternoon showers or thick fog to report every day, local farmers have to plant many taller trees in the coffee garden for shade. At night, they want an environment of about 10 degrees Celsius, but the temperature should not be too low, because too warm will make the coffee berries grow too fast to produce small, strong, hard and high-quality coffee beans. If it is too cold to frost, the coffee trees will freeze to death.

[picture shows Elaraby Kadou]

Based on these characteristics, the promised land suitable for Arabica coffee is mostly located in countries with alpine terrain between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Cancer, which is also known as the coffee belt (Coffee Zone/Coffee belt).

About 65% of the coffee in circulation in the world market is Arabica.

According to the statistics of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), excluding the domestic transactions of each coffee-producing country, about 65% of the coffee in circulation in the world market is Arabica and 35% is robusta. Arabica species are characterized by slender and flat grains, while robusta coffee beans are more round and can be easily distinguished by their shape.

But if you add in the hybrids of Arabica and Robusta-such as the variant Variedad Colombia, which is the main variety of Colombian coffee, has 1/4 Robusta pedigree, and therefore resistant to leaf rust and high yield-and its mutant subspecies of coffee beans, the classification is more complicated. Some Arabica coffee beans are quite close to the native species, while others are quite similar to the Robusta species. Even if the coffee has the same name (named from the place of origin), as long as the cultivated varieties are different, the flavor will be different.