Basic knowledge of high-quality coffee the planting conditions of coffee trees

Coffee tree

Coffee (Xoffea arabica Linn)

Coffee is a perennial evergreen shrub or small tree of Rubiaceae. It is a horticultural perennial cash crop with the characteristics of fast growth, high yield, high value and wide market. Wild coffee trees can grow to a height of 5 to 10 meters, but coffee trees planted on the manor are often cut to less than 2 meters in order to increase their 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). Coffee varieties can be divided into small-grain, medium-grain and large-grain species, the former contains low caffeine content and strong flavor, while the latter two have high caffeine content but poor flavor. At present, coffee sold in the world is generally made of small and medium seeds in different proportions, usually 70% of medium seeds, mainly caffeine, and 30% of small seeds, mainly for their aroma. Each coffee variety generally has a few to a dozen variants. Coffee is more resistant to shade and cold, but not resistant to light, drought and disease. Coffee contains nine kinds of nutrients, such as caffeine, protein, crude fat, crude fiber and sucrose. As a beverage, coffee is not only mellow and delicious, slightly bitter and sweet, but also can excite nerves and dispel fatigue. In medicine, caffeine can be used as an anesthetic, stimulant, diuretic and cardiotonic, as well as to help digestion and promote metabolism. The pulp of coffee is rich in sugar and can be used to make sugar and alcohol. Coffee flowers contain essential oils that can be used to extract high-grade spices.

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

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.

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. Arabica coffee trees are suitable for growing on fertile hillsides with good drainage at an altitude of about 1,000 to 2,000 meters. The climate should not be too humid, but they still need a continuous rainy season and abundant rainfall.

During the day, they like mild temperatures and less than two hours of direct sunshine, so if there is a lack of afternoon showers or 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 ten degrees Celsius but not too low, because too warm will make the coffee berries grow too fast to produce small, strong, hard and high-quality coffee beans; in case it is too cold to frost, the coffee trees will freeze to death.

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

At present, coffee, as an elegant, fashionable and high-grade beverage, has long been popular all over the world, and has been listed as the first of the three major beverages (coffee, tea and cocoa) in the world. Coffee is also grown in 76 countries and regions all over the world. In 1983-1984 alone, the world's coffee output reached 5.5 million tons, with exports of 4.2 million tons. Among them, Brazil in South America, known as the "coffee kingdom", has the largest production and export volume. In spite of this, the hometown of coffee is not in Brazil, but in Ethiopia in Africa. to this day, there is still a large area of wild coffee forest in the dense jungle of the southwestern province of Cafa. The word "coffee" comes from the place name "Kafa".

There are many legends about the discovery of coffee. There is a legend that in the 13th century, there was a prince in Ethiopia who found that his camel loved to eat a small oar fruit on a bush, and he was very excited and energetic after eating it. So he also picked some small berries to taste, and finally discovered this refreshing coffee drink. Another legend is that one day in 500 BC, an Ethiopian shepherd herded his sheep to a strange place for grazing. On a small hill, the sheep ate a kind of small red fruit on a small tree. after returning in the evening, the sheep were unusual in the fence, not as peaceful and docile as usual, but excited, restless, tearing and shouting, and even jumping all night long. The owner thought that the sheep had been poisoned by eating some grass and got up several times to take a closer look at the lights, but they saw the sheep in high spirits and alive. It doesn't look like poisoning pain. The next morning, the shepherd was ready to drive the sheep to another place for grazing. After opening the fence, the sheep ran desperately to the mountain with little red fruit. No matter how the shepherd whipped to stop it, when the shepherd was exhausted, he had to follow the sheep to the hill. The shepherd was very surprised to see each sheep scrambling to eat the little red fruit, so he picked some small red fruit and chewed it over and over again and found that the little red fruit was sweet with some bitterness. When he returned from grazing, the shepherd felt so excited that he couldn't sleep all night. He even wanted to dance with the hands of the sheep and dance with his feet. The magic of the little red fruit spread quickly, and the shepherds of Ethiopia picked and chewed the little red fruit everywhere and sold it on the market. Later, this little red fruit developed into the most popular coffee drink in the world today.

In fact, the Arabs began to grow coffee in 525 BC, and chewing fried coffee beans became popular in the Arab region. In 890 AD, Arab merchants sold coffee beans to Yemen, and Yemenis made coffee beans into drinks for the first time. In the 15th century, coffee was introduced into Europe, Asia and soon into America. By the 18th century, coffee was widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions of the world and became one of the three major drinks in the world. Coffee ranks first among the top three beverages in annual sales, three times as much as cocoa and four times as much as tea. Although coffee has been cultivated in the world for more than 2000 years. However, coffee has been cultivated in China for only a few hundred years. In 1884, Taiwan Province began to introduce coffee. At the beginning of the 20th century, overseas Chinese brought coffee back from Malaysia to grow in Hainan Province. Later, tropical and subtropical provinces in the south began to grow plant coffee one after another. Although the cultivation time is short, the coffee from Hainan and Yunnan provinces in China has excellent quality and unique charm, so it enjoys a high reputation in the world. After some foreign businessmen buy it at a low price, it is processed and sold to the international market. It has become an expensive world-class drink, especially the small-grain coffee grown in Yunnan Province. Because of the large temperature difference between day and night in Yunnan, it is conducive to the accumulation of substances in it. So it tastes strong but not bitter, fragrant but not strong, oily and fruity, so it is praised as "the best quality coffee in the world" by coffee merchants at home and abroad.

The origin of the coffee tree is Ethiopia in Africa. In botany, coffee trees belong to the evergreen trees of the subgenus Rubiaceae, and coffee beans, commonly known as coffee beans, are actually the seeds of the fruit of coffee trees. They are called coffee beans only because they are shaped like beans. Climate is the decisive factor for coffee cultivation. Coffee trees are only suitable for growing in the tropics or subtropics, so the zone between latitude 25 degrees south and north is generally called coffee belt or coffee area. However, not all the land located in this area can produce good coffee trees.

1. Planting conditions of coffee trees.

The ideal planting conditions for coffee trees are as follows: the temperature is between 1500mm and 25mm, and the annual rainfall must reach 1500mm to 2000mm, and the rainfall time should be in line with the flowering cycle of coffee trees. Of course, in addition to the seasonal rainfall, there should also be fertile soil and good drainage. Fertile soil containing volcanic ash, in addition, although sunlight is an indispensable element for the growth and fruit of coffee, too strong sunlight will inhibit the growth of coffee trees, so various producing areas usually cooperate with the planting of some shade trees. The ideal altitude is 500 to 2000 meters above sea level.

It can be seen that the conditions for the cultivation of high-quality coffee are quite strict: sunlight, rainfall, soil, air temperature, as well as the way coffee beans are harvested and the production process will affect the quality of coffee itself.

2. White flowers and red fruits

The first flowering period of the coffee tree is about three years old. the five-petal tube-shaped white flowers are filled with a faint scent of jasmine and the inflorescences are arranged in dense clusters. Flowers wither after two or three days of blooming and begin to bear fruit after a few months. The fruit is a drupe with a diameter of about 1.5cm. It turns green at first, then turns yellow gradually, and turns red when ripe. It is very similar to cherries, so it is called cherry coffee (Coffee Cherry). It can be harvested at this time.

Coffee fruit contains two seeds, namely coffee beans. The two beans are connected face to face with each other on one side of the plane. Each coffee bean has a thin outer film, which is called silver skin, and its outer layer is covered with a yellow outer skin, called endocarp. The whole coffee bean is wrapped in a sticky pulp to form the coffee pulp, which is soft and sweet, with the outer shell.