Basic knowledge of Coffee

Coffee grows best between latitudes 25 degrees north and 30 degrees south. This region includes the heartland of many countries and parts of South America, Colombia, Africa, India, Asia, the Middle East, and Hawaii.

At present, coffee is produced in about 70 countries, most of which are located in areas with an altitude of 300-400 meters, and sometimes coffee trees are cultivated in highlands with an altitude of 2000-2500 meters. Among them, those planted on hillsides above 1500 meters above sea level have better quality. However, the most suitable conditions for planting coffee are: the average annual rainfall is 1500-2000 cm, and the average temperature is about 20 degrees, and there will be no frost. There are many different types of coffee trees in the world, but the most commonly grown and widely drunk are the Arabica and Robos.

Arabica is the more difficult of the two to grow, but the quality and taste of coffee beans are the best of the two. It is often purchased by coffee shops and served to coffee lovers. Robbs specialty coffee is relatively easy to grow, but of poor quality, although it has a short growing season and can be widely grown. But these characteristics also make Robbs specialty coffee popular in poor coffee growing areas. Robbs specialty coffee is also often used in coffee blends to make instant coffee and is sometimes used by merchants to reduce costs of commercial blends.

Good coffee is grown on coffee plantations, ranging from small plantations to large plantations with millions of coffee trees. It takes 3 to 5 years from planting coffee seeds to ripening, especially for Arabic species. Seeds are initially planted in cultivation beds and are not transplanted into coffee plantations until a year or a year and a half later. Coffee trees can grow up to 20 feet tall, but they are usually kept to about 6 feet.

Coffee trees bloom for six months, and when they do, a jasmine aroma fills the air. After about 6 months the red berries are ripe and ready for picking. If there is plenty of rain throughout the year, coffee will bloom and bear fruit at the same time. During such seasons, dedicated baristas manually pluck coffee berries from the same tree over and over again. Another method is machine picking: the flowers, ripe coffee cherries and immature coffee cherries are picked at the same time. This method of picking can reduce the quality of coffee in certain cases.